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According to E.B Tylor, "culture is that complex whole which includes (…) customs”. Within customs we can find clothing and language. I chose this photo to represent culture because by means of clothing and physical features we can clearly see at a glance that there are, at least, three different cultures. Even so, if the photo had the background sounds, we would be able to hear and tell apart the different languages that are characteristic of each part of the world. Even though the world is so diverse, it is shown that every culture has unique clothing styles attributed to it and that clothing and language are also reflections of individuals and groups of people.

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I found this Instagram post and thought it was very interesting! It views language as a way of belonging to a group and determining a personality. It can shape one’s identity, such as in building new relationships and experiences, and even influencing our perception, values and behavior. How true this is! We belong to a different world and culture when we shift to a different language.

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A post shared by The Language Nerds (@the.language.nerds)

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We had seen in class that the "American Dream” was based on notions of equality and community, of people fully achieving what they’re capable of. It was called the land of opportunities. However, this notion has weakened and changed to another perspective. I’ve chosen this publication in the New York Times newspaper because it focuses on the change of this perspective. Nowadays, people commonly associate it to homeownership. The original spirit of the American Dream has been downgraded.

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The Transformation of the ‘American Dream’ (Published 2017)

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It wasn’t originally about owning a beautiful home and a roaring business. It meant freedom, mutual respect and equality of opportunity.

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In the Ted Talk, Chimamanda talked about how single stories steal people’s dignity. That’s why people should have multiple stories. I found it interesting that this website says that "There were more animals represented in children’s literature than African American, Asian, Latinx, and Native American characters combined in 2018.” As we can see, there’s a lack of representation of diversity in children’s book characters. Just as people’s multiple stories, children’s book characters should also have multiple stories and reflect diversity. Otherwise, they would be telling a single story. We, as teachers, should promote a diverse and inclusive literary world. If we do so, we will help our students to develop an understanding of shared humanity, empathy and cultural responsiveness.

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Did you know? There were more animals represented in children's literature than African American, Asian, Latinx, and Native American characters in 2018.

The lack of diversity and representation in children's book characters is alarming and incredibly problematic. When children of color don't see themselves in books it can negatively impact their self-esteem and impressions of the world.

In a nation full of rich cultural, racial, and experiential diversity, our books should reflect that diversity rather than limiting the vast majority of children's books to the experiences of white children. All children deserve to see both themselves and children with other identities represented equally in books. This promotes an understanding of shared humanity and encourages empathy and cultural responsiveness.

Single stories

"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize." - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In her viral TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reflects on coming to college in the US and meeting a roommate who only knew a single story about Africans. That they were poor and desperate. The roommate could not fathom an African who was middle class, fluent in English, able to use a stove, and so on.

Adichie argues that when there's only a single story about a group of people, it robs them of their dignity. The single story reduces people, rendering them incomplete, flat, one-dimensional. As a result, it becomes difficult to recognize equal humanity in the characters of a single story.

One way that children can learn about groups of people is through the pages of children's books. Just as real people have multiple stories, so too should children's book characters. If we reduce characters to stereotypes or reduce them to traditional foods, festivals, folklore, fashion, or famous people (the five Fs), we run the risk of telling a single story: the exotic, the other.

Yes, we should celebrate diversity, and highlighting uniqueness in culture is beautiful and important. But if children's books do not also focus on our shared humanity, they will not help children develop understanding, empathy, and cultural responsiveness. To avoid the single story pitfall, our children should read books about all kinds of characters, with all kinds of backgrounds and identities, having all kinds of experiences.

Underrepresentation in children's literature

The image below shows data from the Cooperative Children's Book Center from 2018. The characters in children's books were overwhelmingly white (50 percent). The second most common type of character was animals (27 percent). The remaining 23 percent included African/African American, Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American, Latinx, and American Indians/First Nations characters combined. There is immense underrepresentation of non-white characters in children's literature.

The symbolism in the image below is worth noting. Because there are so many books with white characters, white children can see themselves as kings, astronauts, dancers, firemen, adventurers. The image shows the white child looking at many large mirrors with various possibilities. But when children of color read, they can rarely see themselves in stories. Their mirrors are impossibly small and often cracked.

(Source: Huyck, David and Sarah Park Dahlen 2019)

In a TEDx Talk titled "Missing Adventures: Diversity and Children's Literature," Brynn Welch argues that "children of color deserve to imagine themselves having the same range of ordinary and extraordinary experiences that white children get to imagine themselves having 90 percent of the time. White children deserve to see children of color having those experiences. Children do not deserve the stereotypes that we hand down to them, they deserve to start fresh."

By actively working to promote inclusion in children's literature, we can ensure that children of all identities can see themselves and others in the books they read. We go a long way towards fighting stereotypes and doing away with the single story. In turn, children will learn to see others as equals and work towards fairness.

What can you do?

Understanding the danger of underrepresentation and the single story is only the first step in promoting a diverse and inclusive literary world. Now, it's time to take action. Here are a few options:

Organize a book drive with only diverse books. Get started here.

Seek out diverse books and add them to your home library. This blog outlines all of the "can't miss" Own Voices books of 2020. Each book on the list was written by and about people in marginalized groups.

Talk to the children in your life about the danger of a single story.

Resources

For more information on diversity in literature and other organizations dedicated to closing the representation gap in children's literature, check out these additional resources.

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The danger of the single story and underrepresentation in kids' books - Reading Partners | Reading Partners

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Did you know? There were more animals represented in children's literature than African American, Asian, Latinx, and Native American characters in 2018. The lack of diversity and representation in children's book characters is alarming and incredibly problematic. When children of color don't see themselves in books it can negatively impact their self-esteem and impressions of the world.

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I found this article about the UN’s point of view about education. It is interesting what it says about not making the same mistake as in the 1980s. At that time, educational budgets were cut and millions of children were kept out of school. And now, there’s a "crisis of access, learning and relevance”. That’s why it highlights that "Education is a human right” that leads people to achieve their career potential and become citizens in this globalized world. Therefore, it should be transformed.

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This analysis shows the history of women’s suffrage around the world and when they gained the right to vote in national elections in each country. It covers 198 countries and self-administering territories, which are home to more than 99.5% of the world’s population. It is interesting that it includes 192 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, plus six self-administering territories: Kosovo, Hong Kong, Macau, the Palestinian territories, Taiwan and Western Sahara.

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A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Soweto in April 1994 for South Africa's first free and democratic general election. (Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images)

This year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote. But the United States was hardly the first country to codify women's suffrage, and barriers to vote persisted for some groups of U.S. women for decades. At least 20 nations preceded the U.S., according to a Pew Research Center analysis of women's enfranchisement measures in 198 countries and self-administering territories. Today, none of these 198 countries and territories bar women from voting because of their sex; some countries do not hold national elections.

Here is a closer look at the history of women's suffrage around the world. This analysis focuses on when women in each country won the right to vote in national elections, not regional or local elections.

A century after U.S. women gained the right to vote, we conducted this analysis to find out when women in other countries were first enfranchised at the national level. The analysis is based on information about 198 countries and self-administering territories from government publications, historical documents from organizations like the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and news reports. For each country or territory, the year in which women received the right is based on the date this right was codified in a law or constitution or officially granted as part of a United Nations plebiscite. The analysis looks only at when women gained the right to vote in national elections, not in regional or local elections. In some cases, data about when these measures were passed is incomplete, contradicted in other publications or difficult to find, so this analysis is as complete and accurate as possible within our research limitations.

Saudi Arabia and Brunei do not hold national elections, and Hong Kong and Macau do not participate in China's elections. In all four of these jurisdictions, women are able to vote in local elections.

The 198 countries and self-administering territories covered by this analysis are home to more than 99.5% of the world's population. They include 192 of the 193 member states of the United Nations (data for North Korea is not included), plus six self-administering territories: Kosovo, Hong Kong, Macau, the Palestinian territories, Taiwan and Western Sahara. Reporting on these territories does not imply any position on what their international political status should be, only recognition that the de facto situations in these territories require separate analysis.

New Zealand enfranchised its female citizens in 1893, making it the first nation or territory to formally allow women to vote in national elections. At least 19 other countries also did so prior to the U.S. passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, according to our analysis. These countries are spread across Europe and Asia, and about half first gave women this right while under Russian or Soviet control or shortly after independence from Russia. Russia itself extended the vote to women after demonstrations in 1917.

In at least eight additional countries, some women - but not all - gained equal voting rights in or before 1920.

More than half of the countries and territories we analyzed (129 out of 198) granted women the right to vote between 1893 and 1960. This includes all but six European nations. Some of the European nations that allowed universal suffrage after 1960 include Switzerland (1971), Portugal (1976) and Liechtenstein (1984).

In other world regions, women secured the right to vote in national elections only after major cultural or governmental shifts. For example, 80% of the countries in Africa we analyzed granted citizens universal suffrage between 1950 and 1975 - a period of sweeping European decolonization for the continent (as well for parts of Asia and Latin America). Many newly independent nations adopted universal suffrage along with new governments and constitutions.

Bhutan, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are the most recent countries or territories to allow women to participate in national elections, although the picture is complicated. Bhutan and the UAE only established national elections recently. Bhutan shifted from a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy in 2007. The UAE allowed a small number of male and female citizens to vote in the country's first national elections in 2006. In Kuwait, the country's Parliament amended an election law in 2005; the change guaranteed women the right to vote and run for office.

In Saudi Arabia, women were enfranchised in local elections in 2015; the country does not hold national elections. South Sudan was established in 2011. It is not included among the most recent countries to give women the right to vote because women had this right starting in 1964, when the area was part of Sudan.

At least 19 nations - including the U.S. - initially restricted the right to vote for women of certain backgrounds based on demographic factors such as race, age, education level or marital status. Sometimes, decades passed before all citizens were enfranchised. In the U.S., for example, more than four decades passed between the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which took aim at discriminatory state and local restrictions intended to prevent Black Americans from voting.

Restrictions like these weren't unique to the U.S. In Canada, for example, legislation in 1918 expanded suffrage to women, but it excluded Canadians from Asian Canadian and Indigenous backgrounds. Asian Canadians were not fully enfranchised until the 1940s, and Indigenous people could not vote until 1960.

In Australia, Indigenous women were not enfranchised until 1962, six decades after non-Indigenous women were able to vote. In South Africa, more than 60 years passed between when White women won voting rights in 1930 and when Black women won them in 1993, following the end of apartheid.

When India first expanded voting rights to women in 1935, only those who were married to a male voter, or possessed specific literacy qualifications, could vote. Universal suffrage followed in 1950.

Some countries also initially set a higher minimum age for women voters than for their male counterparts. In 1915, for example, Icelandic women over age 40 gained the right to vote. Five years later, the voting age for women was lowered to 25, in line with the requirement for men.

Legal and cultural restrictions limited women's voter participation in some countries and territories even after enfranchisement. Ecuador, for instance, became the first Latin American country to grant women voting rights in 1929, but it only extended the franchise to literate Ecuadorian women, and voting was not mandatory for women as it was for men. A new constitution in 1967 made voting mandatory for literate women, and it wasn't until 1979 that the literacy requirement was dropped completely. Several other countries, such as Hungary and Guatemala, also imposed literacy requirements on women voters that were lifted later.

More recently, Samoa's government system allowed only those with chiefly titles, known as matai, to vote in parliamentary elections, effectively excluding women from the vote. The island nation adopted universal suffrage in 1990.

In some places, women were able to vote in local elections before they were enfranchised at the national level - or vice versa. In Switzerland, for example, women secured the right to vote in national elections in 1971 but had been able to vote locally in some cantons, or states, since 1959. But in another canton, Appenzell Innerrhoden, women were only given the right to vote in local elections after a 1990 federal court ruling.

Few countries and territories have rescinded women's voting rights after initially granting them, but there are some notable exceptions. Afghanistan, for instance, was an early adopter of women's suffrage after winning independence from Britain in 1919. Government shifts and instability over the next almost 100 years resulted in women losing and formally regaining the right to participate in elections several times. Women have the right to vote in Afghanistan today, but there are still barriers in place that limit their participation.

In many countries, including the U.S., women often turn out to vote at higher rates than men. American women have turned out to vote at slightly higher rates than men in every U.S. presidential election since 1984, according to a Pew Research Center analysis in August. The same pattern appears in other countries, too. A 2016 study of voting patterns in 58 countries by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance found that women's voter turnout was higher than men's in 21 countries.

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Key facts about women's suffrage around the world, a century after U.S. ratified 19th Amendment

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This year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote. But the United States was hardly the first country to codify women's suffrage, and barriers to vote persisted for some groups of U.S. women for decades.

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As we had seen in class, 300,000 people from the "West Indies” made their way to the UK. However, the radio and television programs mostly covered the instances of racial tension. It was in 1964 when the BBC was beginning to reflect a multicultural Britain. This shows that the progress had been horribly slow and uneven.

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The BBC had never been exclusively white - on the airwaves, at least. In the 1930s, the Guyanese bandleader Rudolph Dunbar had made numerous appearances on the wireless with what the Radio Times called his "Coloured Orchestra". The singer Elisabeth Welch had her own series, Soft Lights and Sweet Musi c, while many other music programmes featured what were billed as "Negro spirituals". As for television, the African-American double-act "Buck and Bubbles" (seen above) were among the stars of Alexandra Palace's opening night in November 1936.

What's striking in this list of names is that it consists entirely of entertainers - people presented largely as "exotic" attractions. And despite a formidable CV that included publishing poetry and running a literary magazine, Una Marson had also been treated as an exotic - even problematic - presence in the BBC workplace.

Before installing her in post, managers at the Overseas Service had thought it prudent to check with the Colonial Office in Whitehall that "there would be no objection on their part to our appointment of a coloured British subject". Her arrival was described by broadcasters and civil servants alike as an "experiment".

It was an experiment that discomfited some colleagues. Joan Gilbert, who helped run the Overseas Service's wartime variety department, often grumbled about her new producer's alleged "bad manners". Gilbert complained: "Quite frankly, I wouldn't let anybody speak to me in the way Una does, and certainly not a coloured woman."

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It's hard to reconcile this with the glowing report provided by the BBC's staff training school. Marson, the report stated, possessed "imagination, appreciation of the audience, political judgment, and a sense of style and a feeling for language". If there was a problem, it was not with Marson herself. "As the only 'coloured' producer in the BBC, she needs a good deal of backing to enable her to use her abilities to the best advantage, and to overcome the prejudices which undoubtedly exist among some of the staff," the report continued.

American singer and actress Elizabeth Welch, c1935 (Photo by Getty Images)

To the BBC's credit, Marson did have the backing of senior management. Both John Grenfell Williams, the director of the African Service, and JB Clark, the wartime controller of the Overseas Service, came to her defence when the West India Committee - a lobby group representing white-owned business interests - grumbled menacingly about her.

Nevertheless, the daily grind of racial prejudice took its toll. By 1945, she was experiencing a nervous breakdown; within months, she'd been diagnosed with schizophrenia and detained in hospital, where doctors claimed she had "delusions" of persecution. The BBC decided there was no option but to assist Marson back to Jamaica so that she could benefit from a "home environment".

On 14 October 1946 she was driven to Swansea docks, where, in a state of distress, she was forced aboard a ship bound for Kingston. The years she'd spent at the BBC, she later wrote, had been "an exciting dream" that had "ended in a nightmare".

By 1945, Una Marson was experiencing a nervous breakdown. The BBC decided there was no option but to assist Marson back to Jamaica... In a state of distress, she was forced aboard a ship bound for Kingston

Though her career had been cut short, Marson had every reason to be proud of what she'd done for the corporation. She's remembered now for launching Caribbean Voices, a series that continued almost uninterrupted until 1958 and established itself as a vital source of patronage for countless Caribbean authors.

Before this, Marson had produced and presented another Overseas Service programme, Calling the West Indies. Broadcast four times a week, it featured heart warming messages to families back home from the thousands of men and women who had left the Caribbean to come and work for the Allied cause in Britain.

It wasn't the kind of series to raise the ugly issue of racism, a phenomenon by no means absent in 1940s Britain. But in creating a personable two-way conversation between the imperial metropole and one of the colonies, Calling the West Indies was a striking example of the BBC adapting to the urgent demands of wartime diplomacy.

Back in 1932, the Empire Service had provided a slice of "old Britain" to expat communities in the colonies and dominions. Now, though, a stream of foreign broadcasters - from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, the US and the African continent - were turning up in London with a different goal in mind: to help the BBC speak in a more collaborative voice with Britain's overseas allies. The result was a subtle but important cultural shift.

George Ivan Smith, from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, spoke of finding an institution that he had once imagined as parochial and stiff to be far more "open" than he expected - keen, in fact, to learn from its new recruits. This was, he decided, a BBC becoming a global broadcaster in more than one respect: not just beaming its programmes around the world, but also increasingly cosmopolitan at home.

At first, very little of this new-found cosmopolitanism washed over into programmes destined for domestic audiences. By the close of the 1950s, some 300,000 people had made their way across the Atlantic from the Caribbean. But if the "immigrant experience" was covered on radio or television within Britain, the focus was mostly on instances of racial tension.

Tunnel vision

Investigative reports such as The Conflict of Cultures, broadcast in 1952, may have been well-intentioned in their attempts to expose white prejudice, but they reduced the richness of black British life to little more than a "problem" viewed from the outside.

Harman Grisewood, who'd begun his career as an announcer in Savoy Hill and ended it in the 1960s as the director-general's chief aide, once said that the work of the BBC was only half-done if it merely reflected faithfully "what goes on and what motivates the present-day world". Programmes, he said, also needed to show listeners and viewers other ways of being - to "discriminate in favour of what is vital".

On the podcast | Colin Grant discusses tells the stories of postwar immigrants to Britain from the Caribbean:

When it came to discriminating in favour of a multicultural world, there were soon glimmers of hope. John Elliot's screenplay A Man from the Sun, shown in 1956, represented a refreshing departure for the BBC by exploring racial prejudice entirely from an immigrant family's perspective. Then in 1964, the veteran features producer Geoffrey Bridson collaborated with the Harlem poet Langston Hughes to create a sprawling 19-part series for the Third Programme celebrating African-American culture - motivated, he said, by the desire to challenge racial attitudes at home.

It was in 1964, too, that the BBC began making shows especially for immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. If the BBC was at last beginning to reflect a multicultural Britain, progress had been horribly slow and uneven: its international output had set a pace that services for domestic audiences had failed to match.

As for Una Marson, by 1964 her health had improved enough for her to visit London. Yet she never returned to the BBC's airwaves, and died the following year. Her remarkable broadcasting abilities were underused until the end.
David Hendy is emeritus professor at the University of Sussex. His latest book is The BBC: A People's History (Profile, 2022) This article was first published in the April 2022 issue of

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From "exotic" attractions to changing racial attitudes: the BBC's slow progress to mirror multicultural Britain

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The BBC has featured entertainers of colour from its inception, but more as an attraction than a celebration of other cultures. In part four of our 13-part series on the history of the BBC, David Hendy explores how the corporation tried to include diverse voices, from the 1930s to the postwar years...