Women in Educational Series Once upon a time... by Albert Barillé

Abstract

More than 75 years after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), there are still deep rooted discriminations that invite us to investigate on the education that today’s adults received in their recent past. Focusing on discrimination against women in the educational and audiovisual sector, this study proposes to analyse the representation of female characters in a set of internationally recognised productions whose subject matter focuses on explaining the evolution of humanity: the animated series franchise Once upon a time... by Albert Barillé. Thus, this object of study covers the analysis of all the episodes of Once upon a time... Man (1978); Once upon a time... Space (1982); Once upon a time... Life (1987); Once upon a time... the Americas (1991); Once upon a time... the Discoverers (1994); Once upon a time... the Explorers (1996); and Once upon a time... the Earth (2008). Based on the original digitised scripts and using word processors, we have counted the words of dialogue of the male and female characters in order to contrast the percentage of participation in each fiction. The results obtained show a clear inequality of representation between both sexes. In conclusion, we can also see that this problem transcends these products, as their educational discourse has been validated internationally.