Gender in story and fairytale books for preschool children

The main aim of this study is to answer the following question: How gender is introduced in preschool story and fairytale books? This research consists of all the story and fairytale books which are for preschool children. In order to exemplify the claims, the researcher objectively and randomly chose 200 story books and 50 fairytale books that are used in preschool education institutions in Gaziantep town center.In the study, document surveying technique is used and these documents are explained and interpreted by descriptive analysis method. At the beginning of the study, the literature about children?s literature and gender is searched. The gender categories that is searched are examined in following subtitles; 1) In which jobs do man and woman figures introduce themselves?, 2) With whom do man and woman figures show themselves up?, 3) In which places man and woman figures are introduced?, 4) Which gender qualities do the heros have?, 5) How individuals are described in their family lives according to their gender?At the end of the research, the gender categories that take place in precshool children?s books are presented as percentage distribution. The obtained results and whether the gender, which plays an important part in teaching gender roles, is appropriate for children?s socialization is interpreted. According to the informations obtained from the story and fairytale books, it can be said that women?s professional life is presented in limited fields and their roles in their jobs are not described enough. The woman figures in the mentioned kind of books are presented as mothers at home who take care of their children. In these books, as a result of socialization, girls help their mothers in the kitchen and do the house chores while boys help their mothers do the shop ping. When the changing modern family life is taken into consideration, the books examined depicts man and woman in traditionally appropriate gender roles.KEY WORDSPreschool, story, fairytale, gender.