Building an Empire through Gender Roles in Little House on the PrairieNineteenth-century children's literature is notoriously known for its projection of expected Victorian gender roles onto its young readers. Male and female characters were often assigned specific duties, reactions, and characteristics that reflected society's particular attitudes and moral beliefs about the empire's future citizens. These embedded concepts helped encourage nationhood and guide children towards their specific gender roles that would ensure the future success of the kingdom. Even in class situations where demanding gender roles were unreasonable to meet, the pressure to conform to Victorian beliefs was still prevalent. During the Victorian era, society had idealized the expectations that all members of their culture should strive to achieve. These conditions were partly the result of the development of middle-class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men out of the home… [into] the harsh world of business and industry, [while] women were left in a relatively unchanging and protected environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This gender division created the "Doctrine of the Two Spheres" in which men were active in the public sphere of influence and women were limited to the private domestic sphere of influence. Both sexes experienced considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming a male "English gentleman" or a female "real woman". The characteristics called for women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse…strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels have used these gendered citizens......center of paper......g successfully, directed their attention towards expected gender roles and appropriate spheres of influence within of their roles to support the empire in order to continue the empire. domination of the Kingdom. Works Cited Brannon, Linda. "Chapter 7 Gender Stereotypes: Masculinity and Femininity." Genre: Psychological Perspectives. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2005. 159-83. Print.Labrie, Janet M. “The Representation of Women's Fieldwork in Rural Fiction.” Agricultural History 67 (Spring 1993): 119-33. JSTOR. Network. March 15, 2012.Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The issue of gender in elementary and secondary education." Education Research Review 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Network. March 14, 2012.Wilder, Laura Ingalls and Garth Williams. Little House on the Prairie. New York: Harper & Bros., 1953. Print.