Dear Parents, Guardians and Caregivers of Young Children,

In researching for a recent assignment on childhood and contemporary society, I decided to look into the effects of the gendered toy industry, and I came to a realisation. I began writing the essay intending to ‘lay into’ the manufacturers, ToysRUS, Smyths, Early Learning Centre et cetera, to blame them for making toys ‘for girls’ or ‘for boys’. I even visited a toy shop with the intention of taking incriminating photographs of it. However, I found that I simply could not do this. I came to see that the toy industry does not make toys which parents, guardians and other adults ‘have’ to buy, the industry makes what we want to buy for children.

I believe that parents, guardians and other adults who work with children need to be very aware of the influence that they have over children. We all know that children do choose their own toys at some point, but up until then their toys are chosen and bought for them. Some would say that when it comes to choosing their own, they choose what they recognise because of what they already own. So a girl choosing dolls may indeed be choosing them because they are what she would most enjoy playing with, but it could also be because dolls are what she has and is encouraged to play with at home, and is therefore simply choosing what she recognises.

Having looked into the toy industry in detail, I believe that there is real evidence that toys affect children’s future careers. By this I mean that toys specific to one gender or the other begin to give messages to children about what they should be when they grow up. For example, we generally see science kits sold as ‘boys’ toys’, or nurses kits bought for girls. It starts from a very early age. In a study of children aged just 4 and 5, it was found that they saw jobs associated with females as inferior, compared to their male or even neutral counterparts. This goes on, consider the careers portrayed in toys for girls and careers portrayed in toys for boys. How often are girls encouraged to be nurses, or teachers or indeed to look after children and homes? How often do we see boys encouraged to be engineers, or doctors or scientists? Consider the difference in pay that these careers have. Ultimately, is there any reason that girls cannot be engineers or scientists? Or that boys cannot be nurses, or carers of children? No. Yet this is the messages that they receive from the toys they play with.

Am I judging the adult population for buying dolls for their girls, or cars for boys in any way? Of course not. Am I saying that we should stop buying from shops which sell these gender specific toys? No, all I am really attempting to do is draw attention to an issue which many, including myself until recently, will be unaware of. Campaign group, Let Toys Be Toys is attempting to combat some of the issues around this, see here for their website http://www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk, to see some of the work which is being done to try to remove gender stereotypes from children’s toys. All I hope to get out of this open letter is to raise awareness of just how many gender stereotypes we see in the toys we give children, and encourage parents and guardians to speak to their children about this, and to try to give their children options.

So I urge you, in the words of Let Toys Be Toys:  Give gifts, not stereotypes!

Katie Doyle