Between the years 2006 and 2010, the lab-elle association has selected illustrated books to promote the construction of equity between girls and boys.
300 children books with very few gender stereotypes and displaying characters associated to a very large panel of activities, roles, emotions and feeling in which they are rarely seen. Those girls, women, boys and mens models, going beyond the usual clichés, allow the children to build their personalities, imagine their future without feeling closed in by gender defined codes.
Research at the University of Geneva revealed that even today, children’s books still convey many gender stereotypes, in particular regarding female role models.
The presence of these gender stereotypes has significant implications on children’s development, in particular that of girls, and creates, from a tender age, a certain vision of society and of men and women’s roles in society.
The association focuses on several objectives:
The association tries to reach its’ objectives through a dual strategy of communication, and the development of various concrete projects: label, establishment of a reading committee, stickers, bookmarks, exhibitions, conferences, creation of an award, circulation of labeled books, etc.
In order to promote the labeled books, and reading in general, we launched in 2007, during three years, a totally innovative literary award in the French-speaking part of Switzerland: the same 10 short-listed books were given to a panel of adults and to a panel of children. Children’s books are created by adults for children, so we found it particularly interesting and innovative to submit the same selection of books to both audiences.
The two annual awards targeted a large audience, all over French-speaking Switzerland.
The lab-elle adult award, which was given each Autumn in a different State, was managed by the Equal opportunities department of each State in turn.
The lab-elle children award was given each Spring in the International Book Fair, the Salon du livre et de la presse, in Geneva.
lab-elle has several institutional and financial partners :
lab-elle has two honorary members who have supported the project since its creation :
Mrs Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councilor and former Swiss President
Mr Charles Kleiber, ex Secretary of State for Education and Research
© 2006-2010 association lab-elle
Le logo, les mascottes, et le terme "lab-elle" ne peuvent en aucune façon être utilisés sans l'accord de l'association.
L'autocollant lab-elle ne doit pas être apposé sur un livre ne figurant pas dans la liste des ouvrages labellisés.