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In 2002, the French Ministry of National Education included a reference list of 180 books selected in youth literature for pupils aged 7 to 10. This list aims at building a common culture. Literature is considered to be the privileged means to understand and transmit values. It is legitimate to examine representations of men and women carried by books that were explicitely chosen for their socializing functions. Furthermore, since the 1960s, the Ministry of National Education claims to foster equal opportunity for girls and boys and especially to fight gendered stereotypes. We have used a methodology based on the sociology of gendered social relations and social representations. Through a questionnaire, information is gathered relative to the text describing characters, which are the key elements of any story, as well as to the characters’ image. Analysis reveals not only numerical unbalances between male and female characters, but also a hierarchy and social segregation. Portraits of characters mainly depict men in the professional sphere and women in the family sphere.