Gender Stereotyping in Toy Stores: A Field Observation

Introduction

Thirty years ago, when the author was a young child, people in the general public were just beginning to pay attention to gender differences and seriously questioning whether toy choice and other forms of socialization help form those differences, or whether such differences are innate. As a result, some people began to push for gender-neutral toys and toy marketing. While some parents and smaller specialty toy stores may have adopted a more gender-neutral marketing approach, the author's childhood experience reflected a fully gendered approach to playtime. Young girls were expected to play with traditional girl toys, such as baby dolls, character dolls like Barbie, and kitchen sets. Young boys, on the other hand, were offered cars and trucks, guns, and action figures. Despite this gendered marketing, the reality was that children often played with toys regardless of their targeted gender.

One of the salient points in gender-play research is that, although researchers consistently find differences in male and female play preferences, individual within-gender differences are oftentimes greater than between-gender differences. As Green, Bigler, and Catherwood (2004) observe: "Although gender differences in toy preferences consistently appear at the group level, it is likely that the distributions are overlapping and so, for example, some girls prefer 'masculine' toys more strongly than some boys do."

Some may wonder why researchers focus so closely on whether children show a gender preference in their play. The answer lies in patterns of human development and the belief that attitudes and behaviors shaped during early childhood are very difficult to change later. Therefore, if gender toy preferences are not innate — or, if innate, are malleable — that would provide an opportunity for parents to raise their children with more gender-neutral attitudes.

Given that gender stereotyping in toys may have a lifelong impact on children, one would expect modern toy stores to be gender neutral. By gender neutral, the author does not mean that the toy store would contain no toys stereotypically associated with either gender, but rather that these toys would not be marketed in a gender-specific manner. Instead, one would expect a modern toy store to reflect the idea that children are free to play with any type of toy, regardless of its gender stereotype. In order to test this hypothesis, the author decided to visit a modern toy store and examine its layout and in-store marketing to determine whether toy stores still employ gender stereotyping.

For the purposes of this study, the author drew on prior research and personal childhood experience to determine which toys are gender stereotyped. Play kitchen and food sets, baby dolls, and character dolls were identified as traditionally associated with female stereotypes. Toy trucks, toy guns, and action figures were identified as associated with male stereotypes. Some toys — such as Legos, blocks, and bicycles — were classified as gender neutral, because all children seemed to enjoy playing with them and they were not marketed specifically toward boys or girls during the author's childhood.

Background and Research Context

One of the longest and most vociferous debates in the social sciences is whether nature or nurture has a stronger impact on human development. In the area of gender and sexuality development, some proponents of absolute gender equity have suggested that, prior to puberty, there is no innate difference between male and female children, and that all behavior society recognizes as gendered is the result of treating those children differently. Although resolving that issue is beyond the scope of this paper, an examination of a local toy store reveals a tremendous disparity in how products are marketed to male and female children. Products marketed to girls are characterized by pastel colors — particularly pink — a focus on social or nurturing activities, and a general orientation toward sedentary, imaginative play. In contrast, products marketed toward boys are characterized by bright colors, a focus on society-neutral or anti-social activities, and a greater likelihood of encouraging active play.

Green, Bigler, and Catherwood (2004) note that levels of variability within individuals may affect the degree to which early patterns of gender differentiation are linked to later developmental outcomes:

"High levels of variability within individuals and genders may, for example, reduce the power of early gender differences to predict later developmental outcomes. Data concerning individual and within-gender variability are also likely to impact nature versus nurture debates. For example, patterns of high variability may indicate different underlying biological mechanisms than are indicated by patterns of low variability. Finally, the degree to which children's gender-typed toy play is variable should impact the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce children's gender-typed behavior. Behaviors showing high variability should, for example, be more conducive to intervention-induced change than are behaviors showing low variability."

Furthermore, when toys marketed to both genders are available, boys tend to choose toys marketed toward boys, while girls tend to choose toys marketed toward girls. Although there is considerable in-group variation, this generalization holds across groups. These behaviors are important because such activities "may establish habits that last into adulthood" (Cherney & London, 2006). When children choose to play only with gender-"appropriate" toys, they may be limiting their experiences and establishing negatively gendered patterns that persist into adulthood.

Different types of play are associated with different types of toys, and for children, play is serious business — it is through play that children learn how to behave. Research shows that certain types of play are linked to specific skill development: feminine toys tend to require more complex play than masculine toys; spatial manipulation may help increase creativity; male-stereotyped toys may help develop both spatial ability and aggression, while female-stereotyped toys may help develop verbal ability and nurturance. Overall, gender-stereotyped play tends to develop gender-stereotyped skills (Cherney & London, 2006). Limiting children to gender-stereotyped toys may therefore hamper the breadth of their learning.

Methods

The author walked through a major toy store, Toys R Us, to determine whether the store employed gender stereotyping in its in-store display and marketing of the targeted toys. The analysis examined where in the store the toys were located, the colors of the toys, and any pictures or other marketing material depicting children using the toys. Because the toy store was clearly organized in a large square, the author conducted a thorough investigation by examining each section of the square, working from the outside perimeter toward the inside. The author visited the store at opening time on a weekday morning, in order to minimize customer traffic and examine toy marketing without distraction.

Results: Store Layout and Gender-Neutral Toys

Walking into the toy store, the author found it organized in a large square with a path approximately 25 feet away from the store's perimeter and aisles extending both outward to the perimeter and inward toward the center. This arrangement allowed for distinct sections within the store. Walking the pathway clockwise around the square from the entrance to the exit, the exterior sections were as follows: a kiosk for selecting tags for large items like swing sets; outdoor toys such as swings and sandboxes; clearance and holiday merchandise; little girl clothing; little boy clothing; shoes; baby clothing; baby toys; large furniture and furniture toys (such as rocking horses and toy boxes); ride-on toys; balls and other sports equipment; bicycles; cars and trucks; action figures; video games and other electronics; and the cash registers.

Walking the pathway clockwise around the square from the entrance to the exit, the interior sections were as follows: sale merchandise; board games; Legos and blocks; toy trains; puzzles; wooden toys; books; preschool toys (such as Fisher-Price and Playskool items); baby dolls; toy kitchens; pop-up playhouse merchandise; character dolls; themed play sets; dress-up sets; videos; wrapping paper; cards; and candy.

The author specifically examined three toys characterized as gender neutral prior to entering the store: Legos, blocks, and bicycles. Legos and blocks were located near each other in a section broadly devoted to building and educational toys, sandwiched between other relatively gender-neutral areas — board games, puzzles, and wooden toys. Toys R Us had placed marketing materials for a brand of blocks known as Mega Bloks nearby, and these pictures featured both boys and girls playing with the blocks. However, the toys themselves had a distinctly gendered feel.

Although the author recalled Legos as gender neutral, they did not appear gender neutral in the toy-store setting. Instead, Lego products were based on action movies such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, or featured something called a Bionicle, which appeared to be a type of robot. There were some Legos called Clickits, which were pink and white and featured teenage cartoon-character girls. However, the open-ended Lego sets from the author's youth — which featured blocks and other components for building gender-neutral items like towns — were simply not present. Instead, the Legos seemed less free-form and more structured, packaged to build specific designs, almost all of them masculine in their stereotyping.

The other building materials were similarly gender-differentiated. While the toy store carried apparently gender-neutral building toys like Tinkertoys and Mega Bloks, these brands also managed to capitalize on stereotyping. Mega Bloks offered themed playsets including a pastel-toned Disney Princess playset and a jungle-colored Diego playset. Even Tinkertoys were no longer gender neutral: Toys R Us offered a set of pink Tinkertoys clearly marketed toward girls.

A similar phenomenon appeared in the bicycle section. The author recalled that, while bicycles for very young children may have featured gender-distinctive patterns during her own childhood, the majority of bicycles at that time came in a handful of relatively gender-neutral colors such as red, blue, and green. Walking into the bicycle section of the toy store, however, the author found that there was not a single bicycle for preschool-aged children that was not marketed in a gender-stereotyped manner. For little girls, available options included Bratz Girlz, Barbie, Dora, Disney Princess, Tinkerbell, and flower-themed bikes, among others. For little boys, options included Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Diego, and Transformers bikes, among others. There was no plain, unadorned bicycle available for preschoolers or young school-aged children.

Works Referenced

Cherney, I., and London, K. (2006). Gender-linked differences in the toys, television shows, computer games, and outdoor activities of 5- to 13-year-old children. Sex Roles, 54(9/10), 717–726.

Green, V. A., Bigler, R., and Catherwood, D. (2004). The variability and flexibility of gender-typed toy play: A close look at children's behavioural responses to counter-stereotypic models. Sex Roles, 51(7/8), 371–386.