Where are the heroines in toddlers cartoons?

[Fabulosososo]

It could just be the cartoons that DS (age 2) is in to, but all the heroes are male. I'm particularly looking at cartoons for toddlers. So we've got Thomas the tank engine, firemen Sam, chuck & friends, postman pat. Where are the female fire fighters, trucks, trains, postwomen? There seems a particular lack of female characters doing jobs (postman, fireman, policeman etc.) and rescuing others. It all seems a bit old fashioned and sexist. There is Care Bears and my little ponies that have a lot of female characters but there seem to be less heroines. As DD gets more into to I'd like her to watch somethin that makes her feel like she can do all these things too. Ideally a cartoon that has both a male hero and a female heroine in equal measure. Does anyone know of any good cartoons like that? We have CBeebies tiny pop and Netflix.

Miss Rabbit does stuff. But the rest is gendered horribly.

Dora the explorer? My sons loved her. And she sometimes is with her cousin Diego.

Was going to say Dora. I think it's wonderful. Teaches them a bit of Spanish too.

Paw patrol has Skye in it. Penny is in fireman Sam. Bing bunny is good as it has more females in general although they aren't in job roles.

I think a lot of CBeebies stuff has both male and female characters in fairly equal measures, and female characters can come to the rescue-
Tree fu Tom, both ranch owner and tree fu teacher are female
Octonauts it's hard to tell but some of the characters are female
As are chuggingtons
Not sure about the gojetters but think there's some females in there

Let's play is particularly good because they often show the gender roles reversed eg man pretends to be a nurse, woman pretends to be a mechanic

Then there are some shows with a female lead-
Kate and Mim-mim
Everything's Rosie

That's just off the top of my head

I find this with books. It's especially noticeable with books where the characters are animals and their gender should be irrelevant - nearly always males. It would not change the story one iota to put an 's' in front of the 'he' in the sentences.

It's horribly disproportionate. And when they get older the female characters are really token, AND get ignored in the merchandise. Did you see the set of Star Wars figures from the last movie - it had male characters that were only in the film for minutes but didn't include Rey, who is the main character!

And your kids ask where the women are and are hurt and baffled that their sex isn't good enough

They don't really exist. Check out a mighty girl on fb for ideas of books for girls of all ages. Books are getting there but also tricky.

I like Peg +Cat, female main character and problem solving, she's too young for a proper job though! It's on Netflix here (not UK).

Doc Mc stuffins is great but as it's Disney Junior you'd probably need to buy the DVDs if you can't find any on You Tube. She's a little girl whose toys come to life and she fixes them.

Her mum is a doctor, as is her gran and her dad is a stay at home parent. It doesn't feel forced and my youngest loved her.

Not cbeebies but Sofia the first, she's always saving her family . Doc mcstuffins, Dora the Explorer , Angelina ballerina

My daughter loves PJ Masks on the disney channel which has a female superhero in.

Doc McStuffins is great! It's on Netflix in our region (not in the UK) so maybe also on the UK version?

I like watching some old stuff on Youtube because of this.

Rosie and Jim
Come Outside
The Mole Sisters
Hilltop Hospital
64 Zoo Lane
Meg and Mog
Wizadora
Gran...similar in style to Postman Pat. There were 13 episodes of it and they are all on Youtube. Type in grans gadgets (no apostrophe) and it should come up.

Hope that helps. I deliberately show my 2 year old son programmes with strong female characters. It's important to me.

Don't dis' the Ponies. It's a feminist utopia. I thought it was terrible but those ponies get shit done.

I change all the gendered animals to female in books. Why does every dog, slug, bear and pigeon have to be male?

Milli in Team Umizoomi.

Wishenpoof, Bo on the Go, paw Patrol (well there is one female pup), max and Ruby, my Little Pony, pigeon Street, doc McStuffins...

Paw Patrol keeps getting mentioned. One girl (well two now but such an afterthought) shittiest vehicle, tiny and wearing pink! Awful.

I'm watching Curious George on Netflix and the aunt is a great character. She's a builder/engineer who travels the world. She isn't in it much though.

YANBU - all the CBeebies shows seem to be Man's Name The Job. Female leads are always into singing and dancing - ZingZillas, Waybuloo, In the Night Garden...

Peppa Pig is controversial on here but at least the women have jobs and Daddy Pig does a dull admin role

Films are much better - Lego Movie, Epic, Frozen, Zootropolis, Monsters versus Aliens, etc

They are outnumbered although DD like Miraculous (can't remember the channel) with the Ladybug superhero and the male one (Cat Noir) is pretty much secondary/sidekick which is good.... Plus I'm quite enjoying watching it

Let's Play has been mentioned and DD loves that, also Blaze and The Monster Machines because she wants to be a mechanic like Gabby

May be for older kids but my 12 year old recommends

Pippi Longstocking
Princess Smartypants
My Naughty Little sister
I Wish I Were A Dog
Frances (brilliant Jim Henderson tv show but sadly only 6 episodes exist - I think there might be books though)
Zootropolis
Frozen
Matilda
Madeleine
Inside Out
Miracle on 34th Street
Tangled
Shrek 3rd (those princesses are awesome!)
Chicken Run
The Rescuers (1st one)
Tracey Beaker/The Dumping Ground (or any Jacqueline Wilson books)

It's a lifetime's work seeking out strong female characters for children, keep up the fight!

Oh and a shout out to Studio Ghibli. Lots of wonderful girls in cartoons. I love Ponyo!

Angelica from Rugrats is a force to be reckoned with.