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.

[BadlyArrangedToasties]

Oh yeah And Dashi and Tweak in Octonauts.

[BadlyArrangedToasties]

Zuli in Go Jetters
Owlette in PJ Masks
Sofia the first
Doc mcstuffins
Skye and Everest in Paw Patrol
Bitz and Bob (STEM show on CBeebies)
Lily in Peter Rabbit

[Littletabbyocelot]

I think the one token female who is really well behaved and wears pink is almost more annoying than no female character (paw patrol I'm looking at you).

Pj masks doesn't have the balance right but Owlette gets to be wrong as much as the boys and it has a female villain.

Second miraculous ladybug - early seasons are on Netflix. Lots of female characters and definitely watchable for grown ups. And agree that rescue bots has some good female characters.

Netflix also has new she ra but my boys won't watch it.

[MeridianB]

Sorry, haven’t RTFT but on TV...
Zuli in GoJetters
Sarah in Sarah and Duck
Ladybug in Miraculous
The science expert character in Octonauts
Sky in Paw Patrol

[NaviSprite]

Sadly I don’t have any suggestions, I didn’t start noticing female strong protagonists/heroes in cartoons until I got the age of 9 or so and discovered things like Sailor Moon (basically all female power rangers in a way), Cardcaptors, Studio Ghibli films etc.

For a toddler I’d say (depending on your DD’s disposition) My Neigbour Totoro and Ponyo are good, I’ve always loved Srudio Ghibli’s way of handling female protagonists, rather than having super powers their strengths are more drawn from their individuality and strength of character which I hope my own DD will enjoy when she gets a bit older :D

[Amanduh]

Nella the Princess Knight
Doc Mcstuffins
Bitz
Peppa
Ladybug
Kate and Mim
Everythings Rosie
Katie Morag
My little pony
Sofia
My Little Pony
Sarah and Duck
Nelly and Nora
Moon and Me
Dora
Abby Hatcher
Butterbean
64 Zoo Lane
Yakka Dee
Molly and Mack
Melody


‘There really aren’t any’ erm there are LOADS of kids cartoons currently on with a female lead!

[MitziK]

Stephen Universe (and it has a great theme song) is full of powerful female characters.

[TryingAndFailing39]

[CharityConundrum]

Once, when my son was ill and just wanted cuddling on the sofa with Cbeebies, I started counting the female to male ratios of characters in the shows, not even the leads, just the characters. It was utterly depressing and I was glad when he finally threw up on my lap and I had an excuse to get away from it for a bit! If you start looking at what the characters actually do and how they act (males - do stuff, make stuff, go on adventures, brave and strong; females - sing, dance, 'boss' people around, sulk) it gets really grim.
Admittedly, we have moved past Cbeebies now, so I am not down with the current crop of shows, but the truly appaling 'Everything's Rosie' will forever be etched into my mind as a special kind of hell.

[Camomila]

I think it depends on what cartoons/shows your DC prefer.
DS 3.5 likes
Team Umizoomi (Mili)
Chloes Closet (amazon prime)
Bitz and bobs (Bitz)
Katies Amazing Machines
Do you know (female presenter Maddie)
His favourite film is Kikis delivery service

He also loves Blaze and ITNG

[DisappointingBanana]

Paw Patrol ??

It has one token female character (out of six main characters). It is appalling!

[DinoGreen]

My DS likes Dora the Explorer and he loves Dino Dana which is on Amazon Prime.

[Bluerussian]

When my son was small he liked 'Masters of the Universe' figures (& watched the cartoon). He-man, Prince Adam and Skeletor, etc - but there was She-Ra and the Evil Lyn who were fierce women in different ways.

[Areyoufree]

Thing is, most of these mentioned aren't super-heroes - my daughter wants female super-heroes.

Paw patrol has Skye in it. Yes, but she is rarely featured on merchandise, and not that heavily in the cartoons.

Someone also mentioned Umizoomi and Milli. That one always gets me - he has the power of shapes, and can make any object going. She ... can change the pattern on her dress. Splendid.

I'll agree with The Magic School Bus though. I love that program.

[steff13]

Arthur.

[hholiday]

Agreed! I think the bbc needs to take the lead in addressing the balance. At the moment they pay lip service to the idea and all their heroines - the awful bitz from bitz and Bob - and lily from Peter rabbit- still look so pink! They should come up with more female led shows. Quite how Rebecca doesn’t have her own programme is beyond me - she’s way more talented than Justin. But he gets half the channel devoted to him

[PigletSmall]

Also, I just thought of Maisy. The one narrated by Neil Morrissey, from the Lucy Cousins' books.

[MLGs]

i loved long distance Clara.

Always felt the female characters on CBeebies are tokeny, such as the female Octonauts. Would it have hurt them to make at least one of the main three female?

[VioletBam]

Curious George is male Richy!

[PigletSmall]

Thanks for starting this thread, op.

I haven't seen Sarah and Duck before. I'm going to check that out.

[PlumCrumbles]

My Little Pony is a feminist utopia. Full on matriarchy.

[Wayfarersonbaby]

Oh and Katie Morag of course!

[Wayfarersonbaby]

DD loves Sarah & Duck, Nelly and Nora, and Charlie and Lola (Lola is the heroine and Charlie the sidekick in this one).

I agree that this is really annoying in Cbeebies shows - all the three main characters on Octonauts are male, there are 4 Go-Jetters but only one is female, only one female in Ruff-ruff, Tweet and Dave; the producers added Lily Bobtail to Peter Rabbit but she's still just a girly sidekick; and so on. Totally fed up with the male default of Mike the Knight and Tree Fu Tom and so on. Too many of the ones which purport to be "girly" are dubbed American twaddle (Everything's Rosie, and the dire Kate and Mim-Mim).

They are a bit better better with female presenters - Jess from MiniBeast adventure, Nina, Katie from I Can Cook - but too many of the "action" roles still go to men (Andy, Mr Bloom, etc.)

Boils my piss it does! That's why we watch so much of the wonderful Sarah & Duck in this house....

[slightlyglitterbrained]

Got to disagree with the Lego Movie: plotline is basically Joe Average runs into Ms Totally Driven And Mega Talented, who has spent all her life working towards becoming the Special Wossname. So, naturally, Joe Average becomes the Special Wossname despite having never done a stroke of work towards it and possessing not a shred of ability. Ms Talented's task is now to help him actually do shit and become his girlfriend.

It's an awful awful message for girls and boys. Hard work doesn't matter. Boys deserve the Hot Girl.

[MesM]

Don't know if I'm being a bit rose tinted but I don't think it's so bad. I give you:
Teal (Abney and Teal great character in a great programme)
Xuli (Pilot in Go-jetters)
Sarah (Sarah and Duck)
Koko and some of the other trains in Chuggington whose names I can't remember
And if you've seen the episode Mrs Rabbit's sister does all the jobs on Peppa Pig!

There are also female presenters on science (Nina and the Neurons), footy pups the football show is female, the one on engineering that's being plugged at the moment and on stuff like let's play both male/female presenters get non sterotyped stuff from dressing up box etc

I love CBeebies!