Social class and girlhood experiences in selected Indonesian children’s stories
Abstract
This study explores how socio-economic background shapes the representation of girlhood in selected Indonesian children’s literature. Guided by Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory, which views identity as shaped by overlapping social categories, this study applies qualitative textual analysis to two storybooks from the Let’s Read Asia project, Cepat Kering, Bunga Kemboja! and Bukan Halangan. By using the close reading method, the analysis focuses on identifying scenes, expressions, and descriptions that construct different forms of resilience through different class contexts. The findings show that Ratih, a working-class girl, develops resilience and independence through financial hardship and self-sacrifice. On the other hand, Kapisa, the girl from a middle-class family, builds resilience through care, guidance, and access to information. These contrasting pathways demonstrate that social class strongly shapes the meaning of resilience and determines whether it is formed by necessity or through privilege. The study concludes that while both stories promote positive images of girls, they also risk normalizing inequality by presenting different class-based realities as equally admirable. These results highlight the importance of examining girlhood experiences at the intersection of gender, class, and age.
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References
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Adam, H., & Harper, L. J. (2023). Gender equity in early childhood picture books: A cross-cultural study of frequently read picture books in early childhood classrooms in Australia and the United States. Australian Educational Researcher, 50(2), 453–479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00494-0
Adukia, A., Christ, C., Das, A., & Raj, A. (2022). Portrayals of race and gender: Sentiment in 100 years of children’s literature. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Par F180472, 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3530190.3534811
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Casey, K., Novick, K., & Lourenco, S. F. (2021). Sixty years of gender representation in children’s books: Conditions associated with overrepresentation of male versus female protagonists. PLoS ONE, 16(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260566
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Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
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Daly, N. (2017). Representations of diversity in the revised New Zealand picture book collection. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 23(2), 172–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2017.1367583
Diekman, A. B., & Murnen, S. K. (2004). Learning to be little women and little men: The inequitable gender equality of nonsexist children’s literature. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 50(5-6), 373-385. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000018892.26527.ea
Forest, D. E., Garrison, K., & Kimmel, S. C. (2015). “The university for the poor”: Portrayals of class in translated children’s literature. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 117(2), 1–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811511700201
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Hakim, H. (2020). ‘Unsilencing’ Chinese Indonesians through children’s literature. International Research in Children’s Literature, 13(Supplement), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2020.0343
Hardstaff, S. (2019). Economies of childness in Cynthia Voigt’s homecoming. Children’s Literature in Education, 50(1), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9375-5
Hill, T. M., & Jacobs, K. B. (2020). “The mouse looks like a boy”: Young children’s talk about gender across human and nonhuman characters in picture books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00969-x
Indriyani, J. G. (2024). Kecil-kecil punya karya (KKPK) tahun 2018-2022, terbitan mizan dan citra perempuan muslim (kajian sastra anak). SULUK: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Budaya, 6(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.15642/suluk.2024.6.1.1-22
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Masjid, A. Al, Sumarlam, S., Winarni, R., & Setiawan, B. (2023). Exploring wisdom in children’s literature: Studies on the values of character education in poetry. International Journal of Society, Culture and Language, 11(3), 299–311. https://doi.org/10.22034/ijscl.2023.2007293.3101
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Muassomah, Abdullah, I., Istiadah, Mujahidin, A., Masnawi, N., & Sohrah. (2020). Believe in literature: Character education for Indonesia’s youth. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(6), 2223–2231. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2020.080605
Nugraheni, L., & Ristiyani. (2023). The role of children’s literature in era 4.0 as forming character of Pancasila students. ICCCM Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(2), 14–18. https://doi.org/10.53797/icccmjssh.v2i2.3.2023
Parlindungan, F., Rifai, I., Nuthihar, R., & Dewayani, S. (2024). Evaluating Indonesian hero stories featured in children’s literature. LLT Journal: Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 27(2), 931–947. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v27i2.8787
Peterson, B. J., Bennet, S. V., & Alberton Gunn, A. (2023). Exploring social class and poverty through children’s literature. In Teaching Multicultural Children’s Literature in a Diverse Society: From a Historical Perspective to Instructional Practice (pp. 95–106). Routledge.
Politis, D. (2022). Gender in children’s literature: Through or beyond conventions? Advances in Literary Study, 10(02), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.4236/als.2022.102010
Pownall, M., & Heflick, N. (2023). Mr. Active and Little Miss Passive? The transmission and existence of gender stereotypes in children’s books. Sex Roles, 89(11–12), 758–773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01409-2
Pulimeno, M., Piscitelli, P., & Colazzo, S. (2020). Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing. In Health Promotion Perspectives (Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 13–23). Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.15171/hpp.2020.05
Rahayu, Y., & Zefanya, A. (2021). Cepat kering, Bunga Kemboja! The Asia Foundation.
Salih, R. S. (2023). The importance of ideology in shaping children’s cultural values through literature. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 8(6). https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels
Sergeev, D. (2025). Latina American and Caribbean single mothers in Anglophone children’s picturebooks. Children’s Literature in Education, 56(2), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-023-09562-8
Simpson, A., & Cremin, T. M. (2022). Responsible reading: Children’s literature and social justice. Education Sciences, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040264
Streib, J., Ayala, M., & Wixted, C. (2017). Benign inequality: Frames of poverty and social class inequality in children’s movies. Journal of Poverty, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2015.1112870
Sullivan, A. (2001). Cultural capital and educational attainment. Sociology, 35(4), 893–912. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038501035004006
Terrile, V. C. (2022). Scenes from the class struggle in picture books: Depictions of housing and home in books for young children. Children’s Literature in Education, 53(4), 526–546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09458-5
Vickery, A. E., & Rodríguez, N. N. (2021). “A woman question and a race problem”: Attending to intersectionality in children’s literature. The Social Studies, 112(2), 57–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2020.1809979
Widjati, T., & Wahyu A, R. G. (2022). Bukan halangan. The Asia Foundation.
Yuswara, L. (2021). Citra perempuan dalam buku anak 20 cerita manis diambil dari Majalah Bobo. Nuansa Indonesia, 23(1). https://jurnal.uns.ac.id/ni
Adam, H., & Harper, L. J. (2023). Gender equity in early childhood picture books: A cross-cultural study of frequently read picture books in early childhood classrooms in Australia and the United States. Australian Educational Researcher, 50(2), 453–479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00494-0
Adukia, A., Christ, C., Das, A., & Raj, A. (2022). Portrayals of race and gender: Sentiment in 100 years of children’s literature. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Par F180472, 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3530190.3534811
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Casey, K., Novick, K., & Lourenco, S. F. (2021). Sixty years of gender representation in children’s books: Conditions associated with overrepresentation of male versus female protagonists. PLoS ONE, 16(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260566
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1). http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclfhttp://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Daly, N. (2017). Representations of diversity in the revised New Zealand picture book collection. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 23(2), 172–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2017.1367583
Diekman, A. B., & Murnen, S. K. (2004). Learning to be little women and little men: The inequitable gender equality of nonsexist children’s literature. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 50(5-6), 373-385. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000018892.26527.ea
Forest, D. E., Garrison, K., & Kimmel, S. C. (2015). “The university for the poor”: Portrayals of class in translated children’s literature. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 117(2), 1–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811511700201
Gunn, A. A., & Bennett, S. V. (Eds.). (2023). Teaching multicultural children’s literature in a diverse society: From a historical perspective to instructional practice. Routledge.
Hakim, H. (2020). ‘Unsilencing’ Chinese Indonesians through children’s literature. International Research in Children’s Literature, 13(Supplement), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2020.0343
Hardstaff, S. (2019). Economies of childness in Cynthia Voigt’s homecoming. Children’s Literature in Education, 50(1), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9375-5
Hill, T. M., & Jacobs, K. B. (2020). “The mouse looks like a boy”: Young children’s talk about gender across human and nonhuman characters in picture books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00969-x
Indriyani, J. G. (2024). Kecil-kecil punya karya (KKPK) tahun 2018-2022, terbitan mizan dan citra perempuan muslim (kajian sastra anak). SULUK: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Budaya, 6(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.15642/suluk.2024.6.1.1-22
Kladaki, M., & Mastrothanasis, K. (2022). Gender representations in dramatic texts for children and youth. International Journal of Literature Studies, 2. https://doi.org/10.32996/ijts
Kneeskern, E. E., & Reeder, P. A. (2022). Examining the impact of fiction literature on children’s gender stereotypes. Current Psychology, 41(3), 1472–1485. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00686-4
Masjid, A. Al, Sumarlam, S., Winarni, R., & Setiawan, B. (2023). Exploring wisdom in children’s literature: Studies on the values of character education in poetry. International Journal of Society, Culture and Language, 11(3), 299–311. https://doi.org/10.22034/ijscl.2023.2007293.3101
Monoyiou, E., & Symeonidou, S. (2016). The wonderful world of children’s books? Negotiating diversity through children’s literature. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(6), 588–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1102338
Muassomah, Abdullah, I., Istiadah, Mujahidin, A., Masnawi, N., & Sohrah. (2020). Believe in literature: Character education for Indonesia’s youth. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(6), 2223–2231. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2020.080605
Nugraheni, L., & Ristiyani. (2023). The role of children’s literature in era 4.0 as forming character of Pancasila students. ICCCM Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(2), 14–18. https://doi.org/10.53797/icccmjssh.v2i2.3.2023
Parlindungan, F., Rifai, I., Nuthihar, R., & Dewayani, S. (2024). Evaluating Indonesian hero stories featured in children’s literature. LLT Journal: Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 27(2), 931–947. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v27i2.8787
Peterson, B. J., Bennet, S. V., & Alberton Gunn, A. (2023). Exploring social class and poverty through children’s literature. In Teaching Multicultural Children’s Literature in a Diverse Society: From a Historical Perspective to Instructional Practice (pp. 95–106). Routledge.
Politis, D. (2022). Gender in children’s literature: Through or beyond conventions? Advances in Literary Study, 10(02), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.4236/als.2022.102010
Pownall, M., & Heflick, N. (2023). Mr. Active and Little Miss Passive? The transmission and existence of gender stereotypes in children’s books. Sex Roles, 89(11–12), 758–773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01409-2
Pulimeno, M., Piscitelli, P., & Colazzo, S. (2020). Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing. In Health Promotion Perspectives (Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 13–23). Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.15171/hpp.2020.05
Rahayu, Y., & Zefanya, A. (2021). Cepat kering, Bunga Kemboja! The Asia Foundation.
Salih, R. S. (2023). The importance of ideology in shaping children’s cultural values through literature. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 8(6). https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels
Sergeev, D. (2025). Latina American and Caribbean single mothers in Anglophone children’s picturebooks. Children’s Literature in Education, 56(2), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-023-09562-8
Simpson, A., & Cremin, T. M. (2022). Responsible reading: Children’s literature and social justice. Education Sciences, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040264
Streib, J., Ayala, M., & Wixted, C. (2017). Benign inequality: Frames of poverty and social class inequality in children’s movies. Journal of Poverty, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2015.1112870
Sullivan, A. (2001). Cultural capital and educational attainment. Sociology, 35(4), 893–912. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038501035004006
Terrile, V. C. (2022). Scenes from the class struggle in picture books: Depictions of housing and home in books for young children. Children’s Literature in Education, 53(4), 526–546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09458-5
Vickery, A. E., & Rodríguez, N. N. (2021). “A woman question and a race problem”: Attending to intersectionality in children’s literature. The Social Studies, 112(2), 57–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2020.1809979
Widjati, T., & Wahyu A, R. G. (2022). Bukan halangan. The Asia Foundation.
Yuswara, L. (2021). Citra perempuan dalam buku anak 20 cerita manis diambil dari Majalah Bobo. Nuansa Indonesia, 23(1). https://jurnal.uns.ac.id/ni
Published
2025-12-31
How to Cite
SARTIKA, Delita; HIDAYATI, Hidayati; ARMIWATI, Armiwati.
Social class and girlhood experiences in selected Indonesian children’s stories.
Pioneer: Journal of Language and Literature, [S.l.], v. 17, n. 2, p. 222-237, dec. 2025.
ISSN 2655-8718.
Available at: <https://unars.ac.id/ojs/index.php/pioneer/article/view/7329>. Date accessed: 29 jan. 2026.
doi: https://doi.org/10.36841/pioneer.v17i2.7329.
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