The Power of "He"

Several months ago my six year old daughter began asking me about the gender of characters in books.  Is baby bear a girl or a boy? she asked as I read her Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I realized I had never thought about it that much.  To me, baby bear was always just baby bear.  I flipped through the pages.  There it was: the pronoun he.  "It's a boy", I said and continued to read.  The next night?  Same thing.  This time we were reading Jane Yolen's "How do Dinosaurs go to Bed?".  Is that dinosaur a girl or a boy?  she asked as we read through the book.  All boys I thought to myself as I flipped through the book.  Five dinosaurs, all boys.  Perhaps you can see where this is going.

Over the next several months, I began (with the help of my daughter) to see how a disproportionate number of "generalized" characters in books were boys.  By generalized I mean characters that really could be either girls or boys.  Why isn't baby bear a girl?  I thought.  Why are all the dinosaurs boys?  Why is the pigeon in the book "Pigeon Finds a Hotdog" a boy?  The stories in these cases (and countless others) do not depend on the gender of the character.  In other words, it is not essential to the story and yet, in almost every case, the authors chose to resort to the pronoun "he".  I hated it and I began to dread the question. 
In Jane Yolen's books, I changed the pronouns in some of the books. Yes, using a pen (!) and writing the letter "s" before the "he".  With that small change I was able to make some of the dinosaurs in the books girls.  The article "10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism" by the Council on Interracial Books for Children discusses racism and sexism in books.  My experience with my daughter has shown me how the most 'innocuous' of details is noticed by kids.  I sense from my daughters persistent questions that she wants to be able to relate to characters in books and see herself reflected in those characters.  Do I think all characters in all books need to be girls for her to relate to the character?  No, of course not.  However, what are the subtle (or not so subtle) messages we are sending our children (both boys and girls) when a disproportionate number of characters in books are boys?