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Gender Stereotypes of Girls Toys

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

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The Checkup

Breaking Gender Stereotypes in the Toy Box

By Perri Klass, M.D.

Feb. 5, 2018

Did you conscientiously buy dolls for your son and trucks for your daughter, or did you try to avoid the whole thing and give them both gender-neutral artisanal wooden objects, only to be shanghaied by the princess industry and superhero underpants?

Looking at how children play with toys that fall into gender stereotypes gives us a window on children’s developing sense of what goes along with being a boy or a girl.

But it can also be an important indicator of what skills young children are acquiring as they play, and of whether their academic and professional horizons are comparatively wide — or whether they are already starting to rule things out for themselves.

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A new study suggests the potential power of words and images to counter gender stereotypes and open up what children see as possible interests and activities for themselves. And experts say that those choices are significant because they can influence the skills children learn and the possibilities they see for themselves.

Lauren Spinner, a developmental psychologist at the University of Kent in England, was the first author on a study published in January in the journal Sex Roles , which looked at the effect of showing 4- to 7-year-olds images of children playing with either stereotypic or counter-stereotypic toys.

A researcher read aloud the words that were printed in a bubble beside the image. In one experimental group, the children followed gender stereotype: “Hello! My name is Sarah, and my favorite toy is My Little Pony! I have lots, and play with them every day.” “Hello! My name is Thomas, and every day I like to play with my cars. They’re my favorite toys!” For the other experimental group, Sarah had the car and Thomas had My Little Pony; the language was otherwise identical.

After they had seen the pictures, the children in the study were shown a set of toys, chosen to be stereotypically masculine and feminine (baby doll, jet fighter, tool kit, tea set) and asked who should play with which toy, and the children who had seen the counter-stereotypic pictures were more flexible in their answers, more open to the idea that both girls and boys might like toys from both sides of the conventional aisle.

They were also less rigid when they were asked which children from the pictures they wanted to play with; exposure to Sarah-with-the-car and Thomas-with-the-pony meant that children were more open to playing with representatives of the other gender. So the toys in the pictures affected who the children wanted as playmates.

Dr. Spinner pointed out that seeing the photos did not open up the children’s preferences for what toys they themselves wanted to play with; they were more likely to say that other boys and girls could play with a variety of toys, but the two experimental groups were equally unlikely to make those counter-stereotypic choices themselves. On the other hand, she said, it was only one exposure, and it’s possible, if there were more of those counter-stereotypic images around, that children might become more open to enjoying the whole spectrum of toys.

Laura Zimmermann, a developmental psychologist who is a professor of psychology at Shenandoah University in Virginia, was the first author on a study published last year in the Journal of Children and Media , which looked at preschool children’s responses to toy commercials. Children are showing more flexibility than they used to, she said, in terms of who they thought the ads were meant for, responding that both boys and girls, for example, could like Batman, or like the “female” line of Lego building blocks.

“Their behavior got much more stereotypical when they were asked their own preferences,” she said, and the boys especially were unwilling to say that they liked any of the ads aimed at girls.

But the ads themselves, she said, continue to reflect the same old stereotypes. “My concerns are that children’s ads shape and reinforce stereotypes,” Dr. Zimmermann said. “They are obviously not working alone; we have wider societal influences at work, but ads are powerful.”

This is not about taking away the doll, or banishing the train. “If they aren’t interested in engaging in non-stereotypic gender play that is O.K. too,” Dr. Zimmermann said in an email. “Children should be free to play with the toys they enjoy — toys should not be ‘assigned’ by gender.”

But there is also research to say that when the lines are drawn too strictly, children’s worlds become not only more divided, but also more limited. Traditionally masculine toys like blocks and puzzles, Dr. Spinner said, encourage visual and spatial skills , while traditionally feminine toys encourage communication and social skills .

“If children only play with one, then they are missing out on a whole host of skills,” she said.

They are also limiting their own interests and the scope of their futures.

“We know that these stereotypes that are being shaped and reinforced can be linked to a lot of different things from educational and occupational goals to academic ability to social development,” Dr. Zimmermann said. “It is really important to have children get this broad range of experiences.”

As children grow up, Dr. Spinner said, they do tend to become more flexible about what boys and girls can do; 7-year-olds are less rigid than 4- or 5-year-olds. But the messages they get from their environment are important, and so is the chance to play with toys — and with other children — in ways that don’t box them in too tightly.

“Mixed gender play is really important, getting boys and girls to play with one another and recognize behavioral similarities,” Dr. Spinner said. “Children can overcome their anxieties about playing with other-gender children if you can get them to understand there are a lot of similarities in what they like to play with, rather than focusing on the gender of the child.”

Somewhere between the ages of 2 and 3, children figure out whether they are boys or girls, developmental psychologists say, often citing Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of gender identity development ; they go on from there to identify the people around them as male or female, and to create rules and categories of what behaviors and interests and habits go with which identity.

“The good news or bad news is, experience makes a difference,” Dr. Zimmermann said. The images children see can reinforce stereotypes and limit their horizons, but they can also open up possibilities and lead kids to believe that they have more choices. Children are actively seeking clues about what their gender identities mean; toys and play should give them space, not narrow their choices.

Many parents have stories of a girl who insisted on rocking a toy train to sleep, or a boy who pushed a doll along the floor, making train noises, foiling well-meaning parental attempts to foster non-stereotypic play. And parents don’t have to “eradicate” all stereotypical play, Dr. Zimmermann said in an email message.

“After all, a princess can play with worms. And ninja cupcakes are quite tasty.”

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Researchers have worried about the impact of having toys segregated by gender for some time.

Are gendered toys harming childhood development?

Research has found that dividing children’s toys based on gender can have lasting developmental implications

M any parents are tired of the pink and blue divide in the toy aisles. Just last month, the White House held a conference on gender stereotypes in toys and media, with many toy manufacturers and experts attending. After feedback, Target announced in 2015 that it would get rid of signs labeling toys for boys or for girls. A UK campaign called Let Toys Be Toys seeks to get retailers to stop categorizing toys and books for one gender only.

Developmental psychologists and sociologists are happy to finally see pushback from parents. Researchers have worried about the impact of having toys that were so segregated by gender for some time, says Lisa Dinella, associate professor at Monmouth University and Principal Investigator of the Gender Development Laboratory.

Clearly divided pink and blue aisles with dolls and tea sets on one side and trucks and building blocks on the other is actually a pretty recent development. As recently as the 1970s, toys sold in the US were not always marketed with clear gender distinctions.

“Marketers recognized that it was not a good time to use gender stereotypes to sell products because of the greater conversation at the time around gender,” explains Elizabeth Sweet, a lecturer in sociology at the University of California, Davis.

Advertisements from the 1970s showed kids playing with a variety of toys in bright, happy colors like red, green or yellow. By the 1980s and 1990s however, there was a backlash against feminism, says Sweet, and toys started to become more gender segregated, though it was still not like the sharply divided pink and blue aisles of today.

While it may seem like a trivial issue, toys help children to learn new skills and develop intellectually, says Dinella. Dolls and pretend kitchens are good at teachings kids cognitive sequencing of events and early language skills. Building blocks like Lego and puzzles teach spatial skills, which help set the groundwork for learning math principals down the line. “Both genders lose out if we put kids on one track and they can’t explore,” says Dinella.

Dolls also teach kids empathy and how to take care of another person, says Christia Spears Brown, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky and author of Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue: How to Raise Your Kids Free of Gender Stereotypes.

Gender preferences for toys only show up after children learn about their gender. Babies show no preference, Brown says.

In fact, when it comes to the actual toys kids like to play with, there is more variability within a gender than there is between genders, says Sweet. For example, she points out that studies of young children have shown that boys are no more likely than girls to enjoy playing with a toy with wheels, something traditionally given to boys.

Between ages three to five, gender is very important to children, says Brown. So when children see clearly divided aisles with reinforced gender cues like pink or blue toys, they pay careful attention. Children also take a lot of cues from each other.

In experiments, if you take a truck and show a girl a group of other girls playing with the truck, that girl will be more likely to play with it and see it as a girl’s toy, according to Brown.

Little kids also tend to think in a “black and white way” and try to be “very typical for their gender”, explains Brown.

For example, in one experiment, researchers took toys that kids had not seen before and put them in stereotypical girl boxes or stereotypical boy boxes and gave them to a group of children. Girls played with the toys in the girl boxes and boys gravitated to the toys in the boy boxes. Both genders focused on the toys in the boxes meant for their gender and did not pay much attention to toys marked for the opposite gender.

Around ages four to five, children learn that their gender is constant and become more flexible with what types of toys they will play with, says Brown. Some parents try to introduce other types of toys and get away from the strictly pink and blue divide.

But it’s hard for parents to ignore the marketing and get their kids toys or costumes meant for the other gender, says Dinella. While some parents try to broaden the toys their children are exposed to, there is often a social cost to the child for crossing gender boundaries, Dinella explains.

“Every decision that is made about a kid’s birthday theme, clothing you chose – each decision ... comes with a social cost that the child will pay,” she says. “ So it is hard for parents to throw out the rules.”

Creating co-ed toys has gone in the wrong direction, says Brown, citing the Little People School Bus: “Now there is a pink version of the school bus,” asking incredulously why a toy company would give something without a gender, like a school bus, a gender signifier.

It may seem counterintuitive to see toys become so dramatically gender segregated at a time when, for example, women make up the majority of college students. Brown hypothesizes that whenever there are a lot of cultural changes in one direction, there is a backlash in another direction.

It’s not just the pink and blue boxes that have invaded toy marketing in recent years: it’s also the proliferation of princesses and superheroes.

Dolls for girls in the 1960s had traditional women’s roles at the time – like homemaker and mother – while boys’ action figures had professions like scientist, engineer or cowboy.

In recent years, as women have become a major part of the workforce, you might expect that girls’ dolls would predominantly have professions that mirror those of the working mothers who buy them for their kids. Instead, says Sweet, there has been a move to fantasy roles, with many dolls becoming princesses and popstars and action figures becoming superheroes.

While kids enjoy playing princess and superhero, the roles are “adult ideas of what kids want”, says Sweet. They are “exaggerations of masculinity and femininity”.

For both boys and girls, the occupations of their dolls have become unrealistic, says Sweet, which is unfortunate as dolls give children a chance to try on professions. Unless you are Kate Middleton, the odds are you didn’t grow up to be a princess.

As tastes evolve, all three researchers hope that one day, toys will stop being broken up by gender and will instead be categorized by type, like puzzle toys, dolls or children’s bikes. There would still be dress-up dolls and monster toy trucks in that world, but instead of being just pink or blue and segregated to different aisles, they would come in every color of the rainbow and be marketed to all kids.

Toy choices, Sweet says, should be based on kids’ personal interests, and not on their gender.

“All toys are gender neutral,” says Brown. “What is not neutral is the way toys are marketed.”

An apple a day

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How toys teach children about gender stereotyping

A boy looks at a toy train he received during an annual gift-giving event. Image: REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

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Children are born into a world of pink or blue. A walk down a department store toy aisle demonstrates a clear gender divide: princesses and dolls for the girls, superheroes and vehicles for the boys.

Does this simply reflect the different interests that boys and girls have? Or are toy manufacturers imposing gender stereotypes on children?

Marketing toys as being either “for girls” or “for boys” has attracted criticism from initiatives such as No Gender December advocating for more gender-neutral toy choices. Objectors to this campaign include the then-prime minister, Tony Abbott, who responded by saying :

"Let boys be boys, let girls be girls."

And there is indeed some evidence that boys and girls come into the world with different preferences and interests. For example , newborn girls have been found to have a greater interest in looking at faces, and newborn boys a greater interest in looking at mobiles. As early as infancy, boys show greater physical activity than girls.

Gender differences relating to play are not limited to humans. A study of vervet monkeys found that, compared to females, males spent more time playing with a toy police car and a ball. On the other hand, female vervet monkeys spent more time playing with a doll and a cooking pot. There were no gender differences in the amount of time spent playing with a picture book and a stuffed dog, similar to what we find in humans.

Such research seems to indicate innate differences between girls and boys that influence their preferences for particular types of toys. Toy manufacturers marketing toys towards either girls or boys might simply be responding to these preferences.

The ethics of gendered toy marketing

In a newly published article, Cordelia Fine and Emma Rush argue that gender differences in toy preferences are misrepresented in gendered toy marketing. The authors argue that these gender preferences in toys are presented as being categorically different, while in fact they are more a matter of degree.

Their review of the evidence suggests that preferences for toys among children under three years of age show a large degree of overlap. For instance, the study finding that newborn girls preferred to look at a face and newborn boys preferred to look at a mobile only shows average differences in looking time that are less than 10%.

Furthermore, they argue that the gender labelling of toys influences how much interest girls or boys will show in gender-neutral toys. Thus, gendered toy marketing may actually exaggerate the gap in preferences between girls and boys.

Fine and Rush argue that gendered toy marketing perpetuates beliefs about which interests or activities are appropriate for girls or boys. Toys marketed to girls may reinforce them to focus on their physical appearance, and toys marketed to boys may reinforce an interest in violence. Gender-typing of toys can also have a negative impact if there are lesser educational benefits of toys marketed to one or the other gender.

Whether or not gender differences in toy preferences have any innate basis, reinforcing and magnifying those differences and imposing gender stereotypes on children is problematic. Parents who hold such concerns for their children should not overlook other ways in which gender stereotypes affect their children.

Not just child’s play

Children are quick to absorb norms and expectations. They pick up information about gender roles from sources other than the toys they are encouraged, or discouraged, to play with.

Adults might reinforce gender stereotypes in children through traditional gender norms that are visible to them. Take marriage : typically men make marriage proposals to women through the presentation of an engagement ring. More traditionally, this occurs after he asks permission from the woman’s father. At the wedding ceremony, the father walks the veiled bride down the aisle and hands her over to her husband.

She changes her surname to his, and the children also take his name. The bride, if she chooses, goes from Miss to Mrs.

In fact, the whole wedding is viewed as the woman’s “special day”. It’s her chance to live out her ultimate princess fantasy, for which Disney might have provided some inspiration.

Like toys, these adult customs tell children something about gender. At the very least, they reinforce the existence of distinct gender roles. At worst, they send messages about the unequal status of men and women. They enhance masculine stereotypes of dominance, power and autonomy, and feminine stereotypes of subservience, passivity and dependence. These messages are likely to impact children’s developing notions about gender and status.

The point here is not to place moral condemnation on parents who might inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes through marriage traditions. Toy companies exploiting gender stereotypes for profit is a different ethical problem to any possible harm caused by individuals choosing to follow particular wedding traditions.

But if we are concerned about the reinforcement of gender stereotypes in the toy aisle, we should be concerned about them elsewhere. We need to think more broadly about how we as adults reinforce these stereotypes. Anyone concerned about the impact of gender stereotyping on children should be willing to critically examine their potential impact in any context.

Of course, one could respond to the rejection of marriage traditions by objecting that it’s not a big deal. Wedding traditions are romantic, and who would deny a girl’s dream to be a princess for a day? “Let men be men, let women be women,” as Abbott might say.

Read the other instalments in the Changing Families series here .

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It’s not just the toy aisles that teach children about gender stereotypes

Casual Academic, Deakin University

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Children are born into a world of pink or blue. A walk down a department store toy aisle demonstrates a clear gender divide: princesses and dolls for the girls, superheroes and vehicles for the boys.

Does this simply reflect the different interests that boys and girls have? Or are toy manufacturers imposing gender stereotypes on children?

Let boys be boys, let girls be girls.

The ethics of gendered toy marketing

Not just child’s play

Children are quick to absorb norms and expectations. They pick up information about gender roles from sources other than the toys they are encouraged, or discouraged, to play with.

She changes her surname to his, and the children also take his name. The bride, if she chooses, goes from Miss to Mrs.

In fact, the whole wedding is viewed as the woman’s “special day”. It’s her chance to live out her ultimate princess fantasy, for which Disney might have provided some inspiration.

Read the other instalments in the Changing Families series here .

Gender stereotypes
Gender differences
Changing families

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Toys for girls and boys show gender stereotypes at play

The way toys are marketed have implications way beyond the playground

By Dr Cordelia Fine, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

Does it matter how toys are marketed to girls and boys? Should society care about the stereotypes implied by the pink and blue aisles of the toy store?

In November 2015, the Australian Senate referred the issue of domestic violence and gender inequality to the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee for inquiry in 2016. The terms of reference include the role of gender stereotypes in the marketing of toys and other products.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters, whose party initiated the inquiry, argues that gender-specific toy marketing contributes to “old-fashioned stereotypes” that, in turn, “perpetuate gender inequality, which feeds into very serious problems such as domestic violence and the gender pay gap”.

To some, making a link between kids’ toys and serious adult problems may seem absurd. Many assume that when marketers use labels, colours, symbols or segregation to indicate whether a toy is ‘for boys’ or ‘for girls’, this simply reflects and responds to profound, natural and timeless sex differences in what boys and girls like to play with – and what could be harmful about that?

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, for instance, seemed to speak for many with his advice to simply “Let boys be boys, let girls be girls”.

How are the various stakeholders in this debate supposed to make sense of these two very different perspectives? Charles Sturt University ethicist Emma Rush and I looked to the empirical literature for an answer, in work recently published in the Journal of Business Ethics .

Unfounded assumptions

The boys will be boys perspective can be challenged by decades of behavioural science – and also by a moment’s reflection. Consider yourself. Suppose that all someone knows about you is your sex. What are their chances, from this single piece of information, of correctly guessing your personality, your aspirations, your attitudes, your strengths and weaknesses, what you’re good at, what roles you play at home and work, what you find interesting and what bores you?

Even if the guesser used the latest and most comprehensive information about average differences between the sexes in gendered characteristics to generate her predictions, she wouldn’t capture you. She’d predict a stereotype that rarely, if ever, exists in reality. This is because we all have a mix of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ qualities .

Yet when we designate toys as either ‘for boys’ or ‘for girls’, we imply that we can accurately predict a child’s temperament, interests and traits – and therefore what kind of toys they’d like to play with – on the basis of their sex.

Strong sex differences in children’s toy choices and play activities do develop. But in the first few years of life, these differences are very small, with a great deal of overlap in what girls and boys like to play with.

A recent study, conducted by Arizona State University and New York University, of nearly 100 two-year-old children found that about a third of the time, a randomly chosen boy would play more with a ‘girl toy’ than a randomly chosen girl would, and vice versa for ‘boy toys’. Contributing to the greater divergence between older girls and boys, research suggests, is kids’ motivation to connect everything they’ve learned about what’s ‘for males’ and what’s ‘for females’ with newly established knowledge of their own gender identity, at about two to three years of age.

In other words, the stereotypes reinforced by gender-specific toy marketing don’t simply reflect how boys and girls ‘naturally’ are.

Workplace diversity

This is important because, outside the playroom, we care a great deal about the detrimental effects of gender stereotypes. Because we recognise that you can’t accurately predict what a person is like on the basis of their sex, employers have a legal obligation to take reasonable measures to eliminate discrimination. It is of course against the law to consciously use gender stereotypes to decide who to employ and promote. However, the unconscious influence of stereotypes is now seen as such an obstacle to the fair evaluation, promotion and retention of women, particularly in traditionally masculine and better-rewarded roles, that organisations routinely invest considerable time and money in training to try to reduce unconscious bias.

Yet toy marketing is reinforcing those very stereotypes in the next generation with unprecedented vigour.

Of course, there are many sources of gender stereotypes. Nor does anyone think that getting rid of gender-specific toy marketing would solve the gender pay gap or gender inequality. It’s impossible to even quantify its contribution. Complex social problems like inequality always multiply unless collective action is taken on many fronts.

How efforts and money are best recruited to achieve a social goal, and how much regulation should be invoked, are legitimate questions for debate about how best to implement our social values. But a better understanding of what science has to say about gendered toy marketing provides a better basis for stakeholders to make decisions that, in their own small way, may have repercussions from play-room to board-room

Dr Cordelia Fine is author of Delusions of Gender and A Mind of it’s Own.

This article has been co-published with Exchange, the Faculty of Business and Economics’ magazine.

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The case against gendered toys: stereotypes, narrowed development and curbed creativity

When it comes to choosing toys for your children, you need to look past the pinks and blues to the play value.

Experts agree that children should be exposed to an array of different toys as they grow, with a focus on the 'play value' the toy offers. Yuri Shirota / Unsplash

Last year, Danish toy manufacturer Lego announced it would be working to remove gender bias from its toys. This would include no longer marketing items specifically to girls or boys, but selling products as gender neutral, for whoever wanted to buy them.

The move followed toy manufacturing behemoth Hasbro, makers of My Little Pony, Nerf, Transformers and Play-Doh, who dipped its toes in the non-binary toy waters by expanding its Potato Head brand to include a gender-neutral option.

Lego’s decision was borne out of a report commissioned by the company that investigated how children and parents approach creativity.

The survey of about 7,000 parents and children from seven countries found that gender stereotyping remains high, with 78 per cent of boys and 73 per cent of girls agreeing with the statement: “It’s OK to teach boys to be boys and girls to be girls.”

When it comes to gendered toys, the stats told an interesting story.

While 54 per cent of parents worried that their sons would be made fun of for playing with “girls’ toys”, only 24 per cent of parents of daughters expressed concerns their little girl would be judged for playing with “boys’ toys”.

The results were further evidence of the notion that girls being less valued in society is still being perpetuated.

“Most research on the material culture of childhood has confirmed that toys that reflect strict gender roles have significant impact of children’s personal growth and development,” says Dr Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, professor of literary theory and gender and women’s studies at the American University of Sharjah. “Most gendered boys’ toys encourage more cognitive skills than gendered girls’ toys. In addition, gendered toys can reinforce social expectations regarding gender roles.”

Why are toys gendered?

Toys became gendered when toy manufacturing started growing in the early part of the 20th century. Sandy Millar / Unsplash

Toys didn’t used to be gendered. Games such as hula hoops, train sets, spinning tops and rocking horses were historically given to both boys and girls.

What sets past toys apart from their modern-day counterparts is commercialisation.

Historians agree that the mid-1800s proved a turning point in both gendered toys and gendered literature . The shift was subtle at first, with older boys, who would have begun to earn their own money, the first to be targeted as an adolescent consumer group that could be marketed to.

With the growth of the US toy industry in the early part of the 20th century, the gendering of toys became commercially driven, as manufacturers realised there was more money to be made in separating “blue” toys from “pink”.

“It is important to note that both historical and cultural differences regarding gender roles can be seen in the production of toys,” says Dr Golley. “Additionally, the gender roles that shape the production of toys are conceived by the adult manufacturers, rather than by evidence-based research on children’s preferences themselves.”

How do gendered toys affect growth and development?

Danish toy manufacturer Lego is working towards making their popular kits gender neutral, rather than marketed as girls or boys toys. Vlad Hilitany / Unsplash

“Gendering of toys can lead to lack of holistic development by causing a loss of opportunities in childhood,” says Sneha John, clinical child and adolescent psychologist at Camali Clinic: Child and Adult Mental Health. “Since each toy is associated with one or more particular skills, children who grow up in strictly gendered environments are unable to incorporate one half of the necessary skills for personality development.”

John says gendered playthings can narrow the thought process of children, curbing creativity and innovation. "Stereotyped toys would limit the scope of future careers as children may not be allowed to expand their cognitive abilities due to such stereotypes.”

Gendered toys are everywhere, evident in stores with large signs that segregate the sexes, as well as online where you can specifically search for toys by gender and age.

But even if there were no signs in a toy store, you need only look for the colours — the packaging on the girls’ side predominantly pinks and purples, the boys’ darker blues, blacks and greens.

“Gendered toys adhere to a clear gender binary; they usually represent stereotypical masculine characteristics for boys and stereotypical feminine traits for girls,” says Dr Golley. “Boys’ toys, such as trucks, guns and soldiers or superheroes, marketed in dark colours, such as shades of blue, emphasise strength, even aggression, action, and adventure.

"Girls’ toys, such as dolls, ballerinas, princesses and their accessories, such as make-up and jewellery, marketed in soft colours, mainly shades of pink, emphasise softness, caring qualities and certain standards of beauty based on physical attractiveness.

"Over time, boys and girls are very likely to associate these stereotypical qualities with themselves and their roles in life.”

Adventure for boys, nurturing for girls

A wide variety of toys can help your child develop their creativity, as well as their cognitive abilities. Jelleke Vanooteghem / Unsplash

“Gendered toys are very much the start of us defining who our children are,” says mother-of-three Beth Satterly, who lives in Dubai. “Raising a child should be about finding out who they are and working with that, not trying to make them into something specific. For me, the choosing of toys is the start of all these choices we as parents make that are not necessarily for the good of the child, but more in keeping with our own perception and experiences.”

With play is recognised as a crucial stage in childhood development, a child’s access to an array of toys and play experiences, irrespective of gender, not only helps strengthen their sensory, gross and fine motor skills, but also allows them to learn about the world and their place in it.

Toys marketed to boys are often couched in terms of adventure, action, movement and excitement. They’re also more likely to have an aggression or conflict focus. Whereas toys marketed to girls are usually more sedentary and indoors-based. Pink and passive with an emphasis on appearance — grooming a doll or horse’s hair; creativity — painting and art, or nurturing, such as baby dolls to be taken care of.

“Toys offer our children an opportunity to develop various physical, emotional and social skills,” says Dr Waleed Ahmed, consultant psychiatrist at Priory Wellbeing Centre Abu Dhabi. “Puzzles and blocks like Lego teach spatial skills which is implicated in learning math concepts in the future. Dolls and playhouses may teach cognitive sequencing and language skills. Playing with dolls can also teach empathy, imagination and taking perspective. So, there are ‘harms’ in restricting toy choices to socially constructed and marketing-driven gendered ones.”

How parents can remove stereotypes from the toy box

Choosing toys based on 'play value' as well as avoiding colours predominantly associated with gender - pinks and blues - are easy ways to begin removing gender bias from the toy box. Paige Cody / Unsplash

“Gendered toys send powerful cultural messages about the kind of interests boys and girls should have,” says John. “These limiting gender stereotypes can impact identity development, peer relationships and brain development in both girls and boys.”

While toy manufacturers have attempted some inroads into de-gendering their toys, knee-jerk headlines regarding the “war on childhood” or “brainwashing” of children into denying their gender has made some parents nervous.

“It is hard for parents to swim against the tide and make deliberate choices for their children that do not conform to the pressure of societal expectations for a particular gender,” says Dr Ahmed. “Whether that involves choosing a toy, a themed party or colours of clothes.

"There is what can be described as a ‘social cost’ to the child for such choices made, in the form of being bullied or other well-meaning but negative comments being directed. So, invariably parents play safe and thus unwittingly perpetuate this myth.”

Parents who wish to provide a more genderless approach to play can start by buying toys in neutral colours beyond the omnipresent pinks and blues. Another way is to focus on the play value of the toy, as opposed to who it is ostensibly being marketed at.

“For me, the most important thing, especially if you have more than one child, is to have a generic toy area at home,” says Satterly. “Don’t put the toys you think are specifically for that child in their room. Keep them altogether. Look for toys with play value. Toys that have a range of things that do different things Toys for the imagination. Physical and sensory toys for fine motor skills that focus on development not gender.”

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Sociologist explores how toys fuel stereotypes.

A Sacramento State sociologist believes that clues to the continued dominance of men in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields – and the reason nurturing often comes more easily to women – can be found in the children’s toy department.

“When we wall off the toys that develop spatial skills or are devoted to science and say, ‘These are only for boys,’ and we wall off the toys that develop empathy and verbal skills and say, ‘These are only for girls,’ it severely limits how children develop,” says lecturer Elizabeth Sweet.

“If kids aren’t exposed to the kinds of toys and play that help them develop those skills, they may not be as good at them over time. But even more insidious is that it reinforces the stereotype that boys are good at science and math, and girls are not. It pushes women and girls out of that field, because they think it’s not for them.”

Some toy manufacturers have proposed making STEM toys pink to appeal to girls. “I think that’s the wrong approach,” Sweet says. “I think that plays up the stereotype that girls are so different that they need a special kind of STEM toys.”

Sweet, an expert on gender and diversity in children’s toys, presented her research last spring at a White House conference titled “Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media and Toys So That Our Children Can Explore, Learn, and Dream Without Limits.”

She and other scholars discussed childhood and adolescence in relation to media and toys. Representatives from such toy manufacturers as Lego, Mattel, Disney, and DC Warner talked about what they’re doing to address gender and racial stereotypes.

“Everybody was committed to the idea that something needs to change, recognizing there’s a real problem here,” says Sweet. “There are a lot of gender and racial stereotypes at the core of children’s toys in the media today, and that affects children on a couple of different levels.

“Research shows that different kinds of toys help children to develop different kinds of skills. For instance,” she says, “building blocks are great for building spatial skills. Playing with dolls is really good for developing language skills and nurturing abilities. All of those skills are essential for a fully functioning human.”

Sweet recently was interviewed by the Associated Press for a story about how some toy companies are offering more inclusive playthings for the 2016 holiday season, including dolls with disabilities, female superhero figures, and characters with a range of skin tones. She said: “There’s been some good progress, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Kids need to see themselves in the toys and objects that they interact with.”

Her advice for parents, grandparents, and others shopping for toys this season is first to consider the child’s interests.

“Don’t go first to the idea that this is a girl, so she must want a princess doll,” Sweet says. “Play helps children to develop necessary skills and to learn and grow in their world, so the toys that allow for the most open-ended and creative play are those that research has found are best. And I don’t recommend that parents limit the possibilities.”

Sweet began her research with a stack of Sears catalogs – some found online, others purchased from eBay, and one rescued from her grandparents’ Ohio farmhouse – to see how toys were marketed throughout the 20 th century.

In the early 1900s, before women won the right to vote, toys rarely were identified as being specifically for boys or girls. “At the time when there were huge gender distinctions among adults, there was very little gendering in the advertisements,” she says. “In the quarter- to mid-century, toys become more gendered, and then became less gendered into the 1970s. And then they begin to become more gendered again.”

As a girl growing up in the late 1970s, she played with Star Wars action figures alongside boys. “Granted, all of us girls were some version of Princess Leia, but I don’t remember feeling that Star Wars was a boys’ property.”

And now, as the United States moves closer to achieving gender equality, she says, most toymakers still are headed in the opposite direction.

“When you go into a toy store today, everything is pink and blue, and that is really different from what I remember as a child of the 1970s and ’80s,” she says. “So I was interested to study what, sociologically, has changed over time, and why.” – Dixie Reid

Jeannie Wong , Senior Associate Vice President of University Communications (916) 278-2067 , [email protected]

Brian Blomster , Director of News and Communications (916) 278-3835 , [email protected]

Anita Fitzhugh , Public Information Officer/Senior Writer (916) 278-2806 , [email protected]

Cynthia Hubert , Senior Writer (916) 278-2970 , [email protected]

Dixie Reid , Senior Writer (916) 278-3820 , [email protected]

Sam Churich , Writer/Content Editor (916) 278-2609 , [email protected]

Jonathan Morales , Writer/Content Editor (916) 278-3817 , [email protected]

Ahmed Ortiz , Writer/Content Editor (916) 278-2388 , [email protected]

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How Large Are Gender Differences in Toy Preferences? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Toy Preference Research

Jac t. m. davis.

Gender Development Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RQ UK

Melissa Hines

It is generally recognized that there are gender-related differences in children’s toy preferences. However, the magnitude of these differences has not been firmly established. Furthermore, not all studies of gender-related toy preferences find significant gender differences. These inconsistent findings could result from using different toys or methods to measure toy preferences or from studying children of different ages. Our systematic review and meta-analysis combined 113 effect sizes from 75 studies to estimate the magnitude of gender-related differences in toy preferences. We also assessed the impact of using different toys or methods to assess these differences, as well as the effect of age on gender-related toy preferences. Boys preferred boy-related toys more than girls did, and girls preferred girl-related toys more than boys did. These differences were large ( d ≥ 1.60). Girls also preferred toys that researchers classified as neutral more than boys did ( d = 0.29). Preferences for gender-typical over gender-atypical toys were also large and significant ( d ≥ 1.20), and girls and boys showed gender-related differences of similar magnitude. When only dolls and vehicles were considered, within-sex differences were even larger and of comparable size for boys and girls. Researchers sometimes misclassified toys, perhaps contributing to an apparent gender difference in preference for neutral toys. Forced choice methods produced larger gender-related differences than other methods, and gender-related differences increased with age.

Introduction

Gender-related toy preferences, and their origin and development, remain a controversial topic. Toys might influence children’s development of social and spatial skills (Jirout & Newcombe, 2015 ; Wong & Yeung, 2019 ) or signal later developmental changes such as sexuality (Li, Kung, & Hines, 2017 ) or aggressive behavior (Kung, Li, Golding, & Hines, 2018 ). Consequently, parents, educators, and policymakers want to know whether gendered toys might be influencing boys and girls differently (e.g., Bainbridge, 2018 ; Kamenetz & Turner, 2019 ; Tortorello, 2019 ). There are hundreds of scholarly articles documenting gender-related toy preferences, and these are often cited and shared in the popular press (e.g., Barford, 2014 ; Oksman, 2016 ). These articles, however, do not always agree on whether toys show gender differences and, for those that do, how large the differences are.

Anyone who has watched children play would probably conclude that girls and boys tend to prefer different toys, but researchers have not always been able to document these gender effects. Whereas some studies report large, stable effects for gender-related differences in children’s toy preferences (Alexander, Wilcox, & Woods, 2009 ; van de Beek, van Goozen, Buitelaar, & Cohen-Kettenis, 2009 ; Weinraub et al., 1984 ), others find ambiguous effects (Jacklin, Maccoby, & Dick, 1973 ), and still others find a mix of null and large effects (Campbell, Shirley, Heywood, & Crook, 2000 ; Serbin et al., 2001 ). Similarly, some find gender differences (i.e., different preferences in girls compared to boys), but not gender-specific preferences (i.e., a preference for same-sex over other sex toys), particularly in girls (e.g., Berenbaum & Hines, 1992 ), while others find both gender differences and gender-specific preferences, in both girls and boys (e.g., Pasterski et al., 2005 ). So, studies do not always find consistent gender effects on children’s toy preferences.

This apparent inconsistency may partly be due to variations in research design. Toy preference studies do not always use the same toys. The specific toys used in a study, and whether those toys are classified as boy-related toys, girl-related toys, or neutral toys, is not standardized across toy preference research. Additionally, toy preference studies do not always use the same methods for measuring preference. Preference can be measured in many ways, including assessing children’s actual play behavior, children’s visual attention, or children’s stated preferences, or itemizing the toys that children own or want to own. Finally, the results of toy preference studies may have changed over time, with more recent studies finding different results to earlier studies. Any of these variations may influence the size of the gender effect and may partly explain why toy preference studies do not always produce the same results.

When comparing the findings of different toy preference studies (e.g., over time), an underlying assumption is that the studies’ measurement methods should produce comparable results. Alternatively, discrepancies in the results of individual studies are often thought to result from differences in the studies’ methods. These assumptions can be tested empirically using meta-analytic techniques. Individual studies typically use a single method to measure toy preferences, so meta-analytic comparisons across studies provide a way to determine whether, and how, study methods might affect results. Similarly, meta-analytic techniques can be used to examine the sizes of gender-related differences for specific individual toys and to examine the effect of factors such as age or the dates of studies on research results. The following sections review prior research on children’s gender-related toy preferences, focusing on the potential for meta-analytic techniques to help explain the sometimes conflicting findings in this area of research.

Studies on gender-related toy preferences do not always agree on terminology, so the present review defines some key terms as follows. We refer to the set of toys that researchers think are stereotyped as for boys, or that they think boys will prefer, as boy - related toys, and we refer to the set of toys that researchers think are stereotyped for girls, or that they think girls will prefer, as girl - related toys. Together, these boy-related toys and girl-related toys are referred to as gender - related toys. We use gender differences to refer to average differences between boys and girls. An example of a gender difference might be the difference between boys’ preference for a doll or girls’ preference for a doll. Similarly, we use gender - specific preferences to refer to average differences between boy-related toys and girl-related toys. An example of a gender-specific preference might be the difference between boys’ preference for a doll and boys’ preference for a vehicle. Together, these gender differences and gender-specific preferences are referred to as gender effects .

Gender-Related Toys

Studies of children’s gender-related toy preferences do not always use the same toys, and researchers do not always select toys in a systematic way. Sometimes, researchers select and categorize toys based on the toys’ gender stereotypes, as previously rated by adults (e.g., Idle, Wood, & Desmarais, 1993 ; Le Maner-Idrissi, 1996 ; Zucker, 1977 ). Similarly, researchers sometimes select toys for a study and then ask adults to rate their gender stereotyping or gender appropriateness (e.g., Gugula, 1999 ; Guinn, 1984 ). Another approach is to cite previous work as the basis for selecting and categorizing toys, though researchers do not always indicate whether the current study was a direct replication or included some variation on the toy set (e.g., Karpoe & Olney, 1983 ). Alternatively, some investigators attempt to infer a consensus from previous work and choose toys that they judge to have been consistently gender-related (e.g., Lloyd & Smith, 1985 ). Finally, some researchers do not rely on predetermined sets of toys, but instead observe girls and boys playing in natural settings. To sort toys into gender categories, researchers using this approach may subsequently ask adults to rate the gender typicality of the toys (e.g., Downs, 1983 ), or they may group the toys by some other features that they assume are gender-typed, for example, toys that are used for art or for construction (Nelson, 2005 ).

Researchers can also be inconsistent about describing potentially relevant characteristics of the toys selected for study. For instance, some researchers have investigated the impact of color on children’s gender-related toy preference (e.g., Jadva, Hines, & Golombok, 2010 ; Weisgram, Fulcher, & Dinella, 2014 ; Wong & Hines, 2015 ), but many researchers do not report the color of the toys used in their studies. Other characteristics, such as shape, tactile softness, or newness of the toys, or the toys’ utility for social role play, mechanical movement, or propulsion, may also be important in determining children’s gender-related toy preferences (Benenson, Liroff, Pascal, & Cioppa, 1997 ; Escudero, Robbins, & Johnson, 2013 ; Hassett, Siebert, & Wallen, 2008 ; Jacklin et al., 1973 ; Jadva et al., 2010 ; Lobel & Menashri, 1993 ; Zosuls et al., 2009 ), but few studies have reported these features for the toys used in their research. Finally, researchers usually do not report statistical information needed to calculate effect sizes for individual toys, but instead report statistical results only for broader toy groupings.

Methods of Measuring Toy Preferences

Gender-related toy preference is a broad category, and we focus here on direct measurements of children’s gender-related toy preferences. We consider direct measurements to include any measurements based on children’s self-reported preferences or on children’s behavior, and we do not include measurements based on reports from parents, teachers, or retrospectively from adult participants. Direct measurements can differ from one study to another, but they can be grouped into four general categories: free play, visual preference, forced choice, and naturalistic approaches. Some variation exists among studies within each of these categories, but they are more similar to one another than they are to studies in the other categories. While all free play studies, for example, are not exactly the same, they are more similar to each other than they are to visual preference, forced choice, or naturalistic studies. In this section, we describe the defining characteristics of each method, with examples.

In free play studies, children are presented with a set of toys and allowed to play with them in an unstructured way. Toys are selected by the experimenter or other adults, and researchers sort the toys into gender categories. Sometimes additional toys are included that have been assigned an a priori gender-neutral status as well. The measure of interest is typically the amount or proportion of time that children spend playing with each toy or group of toys. Free play studies are primarily carried out in laboratory settings, but may also be conducted in schools or homes. The defining characteristic of free play studies is that children’s preference is measured based on their play behavior, but that the starting set of toys is determined by someone other than the child.

One common formulation of a free play study is to bring a child into a prepared room containing a set of toys and then to give the child a set amount of time to play with the toys. For example, a study by Serbin, Connor, Burchardt, and Citron ( 1979 ) placed children in a small room with a row of six toys and allowed children to play for 3 min. The six toys were selected by the experimenters as being stereotypically appealing to boys (three toys) or to girls (three toys). A similar formulation of the free play paradigm has been used by many subsequent studies, with minor variations. For example, Pasterski et al. ( 2005 ) used a similar procedure. However, this later study used more toys and different toys, placed the toys in a circle around the child instead of in a row, included a set of neutral toys as well as girl- and boy-related toys, and allowed each child to play for 8 min instead of three. In studies like these, children may play with more than one toy at once, or with no toys at all, resulting in a wider range of results than may be available when children are forced to choose one option from a set. Constraints on the child’s play are still present in the form of a limited set of available toys and a limited time available for play.

Other studies using a free play approach have observed children over a longer time and have assessed a wider range of behaviors, although the set of behaviors is still determined by adults. A common approach is to observe children at school or preschool and compare their play activities using a predetermined checklist. An early example of this approach was Fagot and Patterson’s ( 1969 ) study of gender-typed behavior. Researchers observed each child for a 10–15-s interval about once every 5 min across 70 min of free play. Children’s behavior in each interval was coded according to a checklist of 28 responses that had been previously defined by the researchers. The checklist included gender-related activities, such as play with girl-related and boy-related toys, as well as neutral and non-play responses, such as talking to a teacher. More recently, a similar approach has been used by Martin et al. ( 2013 ) in an investigation of the role of peers in children’s gender-typed play.

Visual Preference

In visual preference paradigms, children are presented with toys or with images of toys, either sequentially or side-by-side. Researchers using this paradigm select the toys or images to be used and assign them an a priori status as boy-related, girl-related, or neutral. The length of time that children look at a toy is scored by hand or with the help of cameras or eye-tracking software. The measure of interest is typically the proportion of time spent looking at each toy or category of toy, usually as a proportion of the overall time the child was attentive. The defining characteristic of visual preference paradigms is that children’s preferences were measured based on visual attention, rather than on physical contact or explicit choice.

Visual preference studies usually present children with images of toys, rather than the actual items. For example, in a study by Escudero, Robbins, and Johnston (2013), infants were placed on a caregiver’s lap and presented with two side-by-side images of a face and a vehicle, using multiple trials varying the faces (a real face and a doll face) and the vehicles (a real car and a toy car). Infants’ preferences were measured using a corneal reflection eye tracker. Similarly, Jadva, Hines, and Golombok ( 2010 ) presented infants with a series of side-by-side line drawings of dolls and vehicles, varying the color and left/right placement of the stimuli. Infants’ faces were recorded on video and later scored for gaze direction.

Forced Choice

In forced choice studies, the experimenter presents children with a series of choices, usually between two toy options, one of which is boy-related, and the other of which is girl-related. The choices are typically presented as a series of questions with picture aids, and the measure of interest is the proportion of choices that are gender-related in each direction out of the total number of trials. The exact implementation may vary, but the key features of forced choice methods are restricted options and, usually, a requirement to choose in front of the experimenter.

Forced choice methods have been used in toy preference research for decades. For example, DeLucia ( 1963 ) used black and white photographs of 24 toys, balanced for size, monetary value, and intricacy of movable parts. Toys were categorized as girl-related or boy-related, based on the rankings of adults regarding their appeal to boys and girls. Children were presented with pairs of pictures, asked to choose which of the pair they preferred, and given a score based on the number of the same gender-related choices that they made. Alexander and Hines ( 1994 ) used a series of cards to measure children’s gender-related interests, including toy preferences. In the toy preference portion of their assessment, each card included two scenes of stick figures engaging in play with different toys that the researchers had classified as girl-related or boy-related. The child was asked to choose his or her preferred option from each card, and given a score based on their same gender-related choices.

Naturalistic Methods

Naturalistic studies are designed to reduce the influence of the experimenter on the stimuli available and on the behavior of those being observed. These methods attempt to measure preferences without any a priori determination of the toys that are available for children to choose. Some naturalistic studies measure the gender-related toys that children own. For example, Nelson ( 2005 ) inventoried children’s toy collections in their homes and sorted the toys that children owned into gender-related categories. However, inventory studies are sometimes criticized because these toys were purchased for children by adults, so a child’s toy collection may reflect the preferences of adult purchasers, as well as the preferences of the child. Therefore, other studies have attempted to overcome this limitation by measuring children’s requests for toys, rather than the toys that they actually own. For example, Downs ( 1983 ) collected children’s letters to Santa and measured the number of gender-related toys that children had requested as Christmas presents. The measure of interest varies more in naturalistic than in other types of studies, but typically the proportion of boys and girls owning or requesting each toy or category of toy is reported. Naturalistic studies represent the only widely used approach where researchers or other adults do not make a priori decisions, independent of children, as to which toys are available to be preferred, or are of interest.

Gender-related differences in children’s toy preferences might change with age. Based on their early gender-related toy interests, children might gravitate to different social environments, enhancing their early preferences and producing a linear increase in gender-related differences with age (e.g., Golombok et al., 2008 ). Alternatively, children might be expected initially to adopt more consistent gender-related behaviors as they develop an understanding of their own gender (Kohlberg, 1966 ), but then to become more flexible in later years, as they begin to understand that social conventions are culturally determined and changeable (Carter & Patterson, 1982 ). Thus, gender effects might increase with age, or they might show a curvilinear effect with an initial increase, followed by a later decrease, in gender-related differences.

Year of Study

Changes in the wider social and political context may have affected toy preference research over time. Children’s toy preferences have been studied over more than five decades, since at least the 1960s (DeLucia, 1963 ). During this time, some meta-analytic findings have suggested that gender differences in some areas have decreased, for example, in some aspects of cognitive performance (Feingold, 1988 ). Not all reviews find a decrease in gender differences, however. For example, a meta-analysis of 50 years of data found that the gender difference in body image had increased over time (Feingold & Mazzella, 1998 ). Across a similar time period, academic and wider social perspectives on gender and toys may have changed, and these changes may have affected the results of toy preference studies.

Additionally, the perceived value of children’s gender-related behavior has changed over time. In early research, gender-related behavior was seen as necessary to healthy development, and researchers sought to identify conditions that would encourage children to engage in behaviors that were “sex-appropriate,” and to document the consequences of behaviors that were not (e.g., Anastasiow, 1965 ; Barkley, Ullman, Otto, & Brecht, 1977 ). Subsequently, however, academic approaches shifted, to view gender-related behavior as incidental (e.g., Maccoby, 1990 ) and, in some cases, harmful (e.g., Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine, & Beilock, 2012 ) to healthy development. This shift in research perspective raises the question of whether there were corresponding changes in study results over time.

Previous Reviews of Toy Preference Research

Previous reviews of toy preference research have typically been narrative reviews. One meta-analysis has been conducted on a subset of toy preference studies using free play methods (Todd et al., 2018 ). The present meta-analysis extended this previous effort by including, and comparing, different methods for measuring toy preferences. Additionally, the present meta-analysis included effect sizes for gender-specific effects (e.g., how much boys prefer boy-related toys to girl-related toys), while the previous meta-analysis focused on gender differences. Further, the present meta-analysis examined whether gender differences in toy preferences were smaller or larger for specific types of toys (dolls and vehicles), while the previous meta-analysis focused only on broader groups of gender-related toys.

The Current Review and Meta-Analysis

Here we conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of gender-related effects on children’s toy preferences. The present review sought to establish: (1) the magnitude of gender-related effects on children’s toy preferences; (2) whether specific toys (dolls and vehicles) were more or less gender-related than broader toy groupings; (3) whether different methods of measuring preference (free play, visual preference, forced choice, or naturalistic) found different gender effects; (4) whether child age was related to the magnitude of gender effects on children’s toy preferences; and (5) whether year of study publication was related to the magnitude of gender effects on children’s toy preferences. To assess confidence in the meta-analysis results, we also include a set of tests for publication bias, including funnel plots and regression tests.

Systematic Search Method

We located studies through an online search of journal indexing databases (Scopus, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and EBSCO), dissertation abstracts, and Google Scholar. We discontinued our literature search in March 2014. The systematic search was conducted in English-indexed journals. If the paper provided an English-language abstract and was judged eligible for inclusion, it was translated.

Search keywords included terms relevant to the predictor (gender), the outcome (toy preference), and the population (children). Each search query therefore contained three elements, including synonyms and more specific terms for each (e.g., “gender” or “sex” or “male” or “boy” and “play” or “toy” or “preference” and “children”). These terms were combined using Boolean operators to take advantage of the functionality of each database. We also recognized that the terms used for gender-related toy preference may have changed over time, and so searched specific names of toy preference measures referenced in a book of gender tests (Beere, 1990 ), and the reference lists of included studies.

Inclusion Criteria

We designed inclusion criteria that would retain a large sample of effects while limiting the analysis to studies that were statistically comparable. Studies were included if they provided empirical data on toy preferences in children aged 11 years or younger. Studies must have included gender in the report as an explanatory variable, but the study did not have to be explicitly or solely focused on gender differences. Studies must also have reported toy preferences as outcome measures. Toy preferences had to be obtained from children directly; studies that measured toy preferences through parent report, or through retrospective reporting from adult participants, were not eligible for inclusion in the present review.

We included studies with any of the following research designs: non-randomized designs, comparing boys and girls on one or more measures of toy preference; randomized or non-randomized designs testing another predictor of toy preferences, but including in the results a breakdown of the outcome measure by participant sex; and longitudinal designs, testing changes in gender-related toy preferences over time, with results presented along with some report of how results differed by participant sex. Only data from typically developing children were included in the meta-analyses; data from participants that were selected on the basis of their gender non-conformity, or a medical diagnosis, were not included.

Effect Size Calculation

Each study had corresponding effect sizes calculated and converted for the meta-analysis, using standard procedures (Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein, 2011 ; Lipsey & Wilson, 2001 ). For the primary meta-analyses, up to five effect sizes (standardized mean differences) were calculated for each study: (1) gender difference in preference for boy-related toys; (2) gender difference in preference for girl-related toys; (3) boys’ gender-specific preference for boy-related over girl-related toys; (4) girls’ gender-specific preference for girl-related over boy-related toys; and (5) gender difference in preference for neutral toys. Effect sizes were calculated so that if the effect was positive, it was in the direction that would be expected a priori; for example, if girls prefer girl-related over boy-related toys, the effect is positive; if boys prefer boy-related over girl-related toys, the effect is positive. For neutral toys, a positive effect size would indicate that boys preferred the toys more than girls did. Studies could contribute effect sizes to all five meta-analyses, so these meta-analyses were not independent.

Study statistics were collected and transformed in the following order of preference: means and SD; direct reporting of effect sizes (e.g., standardized mean difference, correlation coefficient, odds ratio); effect measures with magnitude and direction (e.g., regression coefficients and SE, mean differences); raw numbers; results of test statistics (e.g., t values, p values); or digitized numbers read from figures using a web-based plot digitizer program (WebPlotDigitizer version 3.9; Rohatgi, 2015 ).

Meta-analysis Models

We used multilevel meta-analysis models to properly account for correlated data structures within studies that reported on several groups at once (for example, studies that used a longitudinal design, with children measured at multiple ages, or papers reporting on multiple groups). Meta-analysis models used inverse variance weights and restricted maximum likelihood estimation.

We also ran sensitivity analyses to test that the results were robust to using the following: standard random-effects meta-analysis, multilevel meta-analysis, and multivariate parameterization of the multilevel meta-analysis. Substantive results were consistent across all types of analysis.

Types of Toys: Dolls and Vehicles

Four multilevel meta-analyses examined effect sizes for gender-related preferences for two specific categories of toys: dolls and vehicles. These assessed the gender difference in preference for dolls, the gender difference in preference for vehicles, boys’ gender-specific preference for vehicles, and girls’ gender-specific preference for dolls. We statistically compared the results of the meta-analyses of dolls and vehicles to the results of the meta-analyses of the broader toy groupings, using a modified t test for comparing standardized effect sizes. We could not include similar analyses for toy categories other than dolls and vehicles, because insufficient numbers of studies reported results for any other specific toy categories.

Study Method, Child Age, and Year of Publication

We used moderator analyses to test for the effects of the study method (free play, visual preference, forced choice, and naturalistic), child age, and year of publication. Studies were not excluded from the main meta-analyses if they did not report information on a moderator (e.g., if child age was unclear), but they were excluded from the analysis for that moderator. In addition, all studies were included in the analysis of method as a moderator, as all the studies fit into one of the four categories of methods. We used multivariate multilevel mixed effects meta-regression models.

Publication Bias

A series of funnel plots and corresponding regression tests (Egger, Smith, Schneider, & Minder, 1997 ) assessed whether the effect sizes differed for small and large studies. Since large studies tend to be published even if they report small effect sizes, a high rate of large studies with small effect sizes and small studies with large effect sizes would suggest publication bias in the sample.

Statistical Software

All analyses were conducted using the statistical software R . Specific packages included metafor for frequentist meta-analysis models (Viechtbauer, 2010 ) and basic plot functions to create figures.

Systematic Search Results

The systematic search identified 3,508 unique sources. Twenty-eight sources (0.8%) could not be obtained to review for eligibility (these were: 1 erratum; 1 reply; 3 sources in non-English-language journals that we could not access; 12 sources in English-language journals that we could not access, all published between 1973 and 1987; 1 source in a non-indexed journal; 7 dissertations; 1 conference paper; and 2 sources with no reference information). Of the 3,508 sources obtained, 981 were marked provisionally eligible according to the title and keywords, and, on inspection of the abstract, 271 of these were marked provisionally eligible. Of these, on inspection of the full text, 196 studies had no comparative data, did not report on toy preferences, did not include children as participants, or did not report sufficient statistics to calculate an effect size. These studies were excluded, as reported in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, Altman, & The PRISMA Group, 2009 ) in Fig. 1 . 1 The final set of 75 papers eligible for the meta-analysis contained 113 effect sizes for gender-related differences in toy preferences. The number of effect sizes exceeded the number of papers because some studies contained multiple effect sizes (e.g., because of multiple age groups within a study or multiple studies within a paper).

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PRISMA flow diagram for attrition of publications included in the systematic review. Numbers in brackets are number of sources

Description of Toy Preference Studies

Study characteristics are summarized in Table 1 .

Table 1

List of studies included in the meta-analysis of gender-related differences in toy preferences, with key characteristics

a Study location was reported in the paper

b Study location was inferred from the location of the primary author’s affiliation

The average age of children in toy preference studies ranged from a minimum of 3 months (Alexander, Wilcox, & Farmer, 2009 ; Campbell et al., 2000 ; Escudero et al., 2013 ) to a maximum of 11 years (Boldizar, 1991 ; McHale, Kim, Whiteman, & Crouter, 2004 ). The number of studies published on gender-related toy preferences rose in the late 1970s to early 1980s, and new studies continued to be published throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and to the present. Most studies were conducted in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, but studies were also conducted in Australia, Finland, Sweden, and Israel (see Table 1 ).

Studies’ operational definitions of boy-related toys, girl-related toys, and neutral toys were not always consistent and in some cases overlapped. Vehicles and guns were almost always categorized as boy-related. Dolls were almost always categorized as girl-related. Other types of toys included active toys, such as sandpits and skipping ropes; appearance-related toys, such as brush and comb sets and makeup kits; toys for arts and crafts activities, such as Play-Doh or clay; household-related toys, such as tea sets and toy stoves; structures, such as houses, parking garages, and castles; writing tools; musical instruments; as well as a range of other toys. Figure 2 shows the number of studies that used specific toys, and their author-defined gender-related classifications.

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Toys used as girl-related, boy-related, and neutral toys as listed in method sections of studies included in the meta-analysis. Studies could contribute more than one toy to the figure. These toys were mentioned in method sections of studies, but data were not typically reported for each individual toy. Most studies reported statistics for groups of toys, but not for individual toys

Dolls and vehicles, for girls and for boys, respectively, were frequently used in toy preference studies. Furthermore, when a study included only a single toy for each gender, it often included a doll as a girl-related toy and a vehicle as a boy-related toy. Therefore, there was enough information available about dolls and vehicles, specifically, to test whether these toys showed the same gender differences as broader groups of gender-related toys.

We therefore conducted two sets of analyses. First, we analyzed gender effects on children’s preferences for boy-related toys compared to girl-related toys, broadly defined by study authors. Second, we analyzed gender effects on children’s preferences for dolls compared to vehicles. We compared the results for the broader toy groupings to the results for dolls and vehicles, to check whether the broader results were replicated with only the smaller subset of well-defined and often used toys.

Gender Effects on Toy Preferences

Gender difference in preference for boy-related toys.

The multilevel meta-analysis of the gender difference in preference for boy-related toys included a total of 108 effect sizes. Boys preferred boy-related toys more than girls did, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 1.83, 95% CI = 0.96–2.71, p < .001). The regression test for funnel plot asymmetry showed no evidence of publication bias, t (106) = − 0.49, p = .626.

Gender Difference in Preference for Girl-Related Toys

The multilevel meta-analysis of the gender difference in preference for girl-related toys included a total of 108 effect sizes. Girls preferred girl-related toys more than boys did, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 1.60, 95% CI = 0.76–2.43, p < .001), and not significantly different from the gender difference in preference for boy-related toys, z = 0.43, p = .665. The regression test for funnel plot asymmetry showed no evidence of publication bias, t (106) = − 1.29, p = .201.

Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Boy-Related Toys Over Girl-Related Toys

The multilevel meta-analysis of boys’ gender-specific preference for boy-related toys included a total of 104 effect sizes. Boys preferred boy-related toys to girl-related toys, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 3.48, 95% CI = 1.17–5.79, p = .003). The regression test for funnel plot asymmetry showed no evidence of publication bias, t (102) = − 1.37, p = .174.

Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Girl-Related Toys Over Boy-Related Toys

The multilevel meta-analysis of girls’ gender-specific preference for girl-related toys included a total of 109 effect sizes. Girls preferred girl-related toys to boy-related toys, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 1.21, 95% CI = 0.61–1.82, p < .001) and was not significantly different than boys’ gender-specific preference for boy-related toys over girl-related toys, z = 1.84, p = .066. The regression test for funnel plot asymmetry showed no evidence of publication bias, t (107) = − 1.35, p = .180.

Gender Difference in Preference for Neutral Toys

The multilevel meta-analysis of the gender difference in preference for neutral toys included a total of 27 effect sizes. Girls preferred neutral toys more than boys did, and this effect was small but significant ( d = − 0.29, 95% CI = − 0.56 to − 0.02, p = .039). The regression test for funnel plot asymmetry suggested possible publication bias, t (25) = − 2.05, p = .051. A follow-up trim-and-fill analysis (Duval & Tweedie, 2000 ) estimated two missing studies on the left side of the funnel plot. The revised meta-analysis estimate still showed girls preferring neutral toys significantly more than boys did ( d = − 0.29, 95% CI = − 0.55 to − 0.03, p = .029).

Vehicles and Dolls Compared to Broader Gender-Related Groups of Toys

Gender difference in preference for vehicles.

The multilevel meta-analysis of the gender difference in preference for vehicles included a total of 28 effect sizes. Boys preferred vehicles more than girls did, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 2.44, 95% CI = 0.52–4.35, p = .013).

Gender Difference in Preference for Dolls

The multilevel meta-analysis of the gender difference in preference for dolls included a total of 29 effect sizes. Girls preferred dolls more than boys did, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 4.12, 95% CI = 0.22–8.03, p = .038) and significantly larger than the gender difference in preference for toy vehicles, t (55) = 4.04, p < .001.

Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Vehicles Over Dolls

The multilevel meta-analysis of boys’ gender-specific preference for vehicles included a total of 27 effect sizes. Boys preferred vehicles to dolls, and this effect was large and statistically significant ( d = 3.10, 95% CI = 0.73–5.47, p = .010).

Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Dolls Over Vehicles

The multilevel meta-analysis of girls’ gender-specific preference for dolls included a total of 27 effect sizes. Girls preferred dolls to vehicles, and this effect was large but not statistically significant with a two-tailed test ( d = 3.51, 95% CI = − 0.62 to 7.65, p = .095). It also was not significantly different from the effect size for boys’ preference for vehicles over dolls, t (52) = 0.87, p = .388.

Vehicles and Dolls Compared to Broader Toy Groupings

Figure 3 summarizes the effect sizes for children’s gender-related preferences for toy vehicles and dolls, and the effect sizes for children’s gender-related preferences for broader groupings of boy-related and girl-related toys. The gender difference in preference for vehicles was significantly larger than the gender difference in preference for all boy-related toys, t (134) = 3.21, p = .002. Similarly, the gender difference in preference for dolls was significantly larger than the gender difference in preference for all girl-related toys, t (135) = 6.72, p < .001. Girls’ gender-specific preference for dolls was significantly larger than their gender-specific preference for all girl-related toys, t (129) = 5.61, p < .001. Boys’ gender-specific preference for vehicles was larger than their gender-specific preference for all boy-related toys, but this was not statistically significant, t (129) = 1.46, p = .148.

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Standardized effect sizes for gender differences in children’s preferences for vehicles and dolls only compared to broad groups of boy-related, girl-related toys. Error bars show standard errors

Moderator Analyses

We found some covariance of measurement methods with child age, but not complete confounding, F (3,105) = 12.55, p < .001. Visual preference studies focused on infants, and children in these studies were younger than those in the studies using free play ( t [61.78] = 7.76, p < .001), forced choice ( t [32.96] = 8.23, p < .001), or naturalistic ( t [6.96] = 5.46, p < .001) methods. We therefore conducted separate meta-regressions for each predictor, because one of the assumptions of meta-regression is that the predictor variables are independent. To test our assumptions, we conducted meta-regressions including interaction terms for the independent effects of age within each measurement method and using curvilinear terms for child age. All of the interaction and curvilinear terms were small and not statistically significant, so we proceeded with separate linear meta-regressions for method of measuring preference, age, and publication year.

Method of Measuring Preference

Method of measuring preference was operationalized as a categorical predictor with four levels: free play, visual preference, forced choice, and naturalistic methods. This four-level predictor was converted into a reference category (free play, since this was the largest category) and three dummy variables for the three other categories (visual preference, forced choice, and naturalistic). Analyses were multilevel meta-regressions with the gender effects (gender differences and gender-specific preferences) as the outcomes and dummy variables for different methods of measuring preference as the predictors. Figure 4 shows the standardized effect sizes for different methods of measuring gender-related toy preferences.

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Standard effect sizes for free play, visual preference, forced choice, and naturalistic methods of measuring gender-related toy preferences. Note : neutral toys are not presented because almost all studies that gave children a neutral option were free play studies (22 of 29)

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on the Gender Difference in Preference for Boy-Related Toys

Forced choice methods showed larger gender differences in preference for boy-related toys than the reference category (free play methods), b = 3.05, 95% CI = 1.09–5.01, p = .002, but there were no significant differences between the reference category (free play methods) and visual preference, b = − 0.83, 95% CI = − 3.49 to 1.83, p = .542, or naturalistic methods, b = 0.18, 95% CI = − 2.68 to 3.04, p = .901.

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on the Gender Difference in Preference for Girl-Related Toys

Forced choice methods found larger gender differences in preference for girl-related toys than the reference category (free play), b = 2.70, 95% CI = 0.80–4.59, p = .005, but there were no significant differences between the reference category (free play) and visual preference, b = − 0.53, 95% CI = − 3.14 to 2.08, p = .689, or naturalistic methods, b = 0.06, 95% CI = − 2.72 to 2.84, p = .965.

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Boy-Related Toys Over Girl-Related Toys

In boys, there was no significant effect of method (forced choice b = 2.09, 95% CI = − 3.42 to 7.60, p = .458, visual preference b = − 3.25, 95% CI = − 11.66 to 5.17, p = .450, naturalistic methods b = − 2.32, 95% CI = − 10.92 to 6.28, p = .597, compared to the reference category free play) on gender-specific preference.

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Girl-Related Toys Over Boy-Related Toys

In girls, forced choice methods found larger gender-specific preference than the reference category (free play), b = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.17–2.93, p = .028, but there were no significant differences between the reference category (free play) and studies that used visual preference, b = − 0.40, 95% CI = − 2.42 to 1.63, p = .700, or naturalistic methods, b = 0.33, 95% CI = − 1.86 to 2.51, p = .770.

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on the Gender Difference in Preference for Neutral Toys

There was no significant effect of method of measuring preference (forced choice b = 0.12, 95% CI = − 0.77 to 1.02, p = .789, naturalistic b = − 0.35, 95% CI = − 1.31 to 0.61, p = .470, compared to the reference category, free play), on the size of the gender difference in children’s preference for neutral toys. These results could be unreliable, however, as 22 of 29 studies that provided a neutral toy option were free play studies. No studies used visual preference to measure gender differences in preference for neutral toys.

Age was operationalized as a continuous moderator, with each effect estimate assigned the average age reported for children in that sample (since individual-level data were not available).

The Effect of Age on the Gender Difference in Preference for Boy-Related Toys

The size of the gender difference in preference for boy-related toys increased significantly with child age, b = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00–0.05, p = .027.

The Effect of Age on the Gender Difference in Preference for Girl-Related Toys

The size of the gender difference in preference for girl-related toys increased significantly with child age, b = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00–0.05, p = .028.

The Effect of Age on Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Boy-Related Toys Over Girl-Related Toys

The size of boys’ gender-specific preference for boy-related over girl-related toys increased significantly with child age, b = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.02–0.11, p = .004.

The Effect of Age on Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Girl-Related Toys Over Boy-Related Toys

The size of girls’ gender-specific preference for girl-related over boy-related toys did not change significantly with child age, b = 0.01, 95% CI = − 0.01 to 0.03, p = .198.

The Effect of Age on the Gender Difference in Preference for Neutral Toys

The size of the gender difference in preference for neutral toys decreased significantly with child age, b = − 0.01, 95% CI = − 0.02 to − 0.01, p < .001.

Publication Year

Publication year was operationalized as a continuous moderator, with each effect estimate assigned the year of publication of the study in which it was reported.

The Effect of Publication Year on the Gender Difference in Preference for Boy-Related Toys

There was no significant effect of publication year on the size of the gender difference in preference for boy-related toys, b < − 0.03, 95% CI = − 0.09 to 0.03, p = .309.

The Effect of Publication Year on the Gender Difference in Preference for Girl-Related Toys

There was no significant effect of publication year on the size of the gender difference in preference for girl-related toys, b < − 0.05, 95% CI = − 0.11 to 0.01, p = .103.

The Effect of Publication Year on Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Boy-Related Toys Over Girl-Related Toys

There was no significant effect of publication year on the size of boys’ preference for boy-related over girl-related toys, b = 0.02, 95% CI = − 0.15 to 0.19, p = .833.

The Effect of Publication Year on Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Girl-Related Toys Over Boy-Related Toys

There was no significant effect of publication year on the size of girls’ preference for girls’ toys over boys’ toys, b = − 0.03, 95% CI = − 0.08 to 0.01, p = .144.

The Effect of Publication Year on the Gender Difference in Preference for Neutral Toys

There was no significant effect of publication year on the size of the gender differences in preference for neutral toys, b = 0.01, 95% CI = − 0.00 to 0.03, p = .117.

We found a broad consistency of results across the large body of research on children’s gender-related toy preferences: children showed large and reliable preferences for toys that were related to their own gender. Thus, according to our review, gender-related toy preferences may be considered a well-established finding. Our results, with 75 studies and a range of toy preference measurements, complement and extend a previous meta-analysis of 16 studies focused on free play (Todd et al., 2018 ).

However, our meta-analyses also revealed some gaps that could prevent confident inferences about the drivers and consequences of children’s gender-related toy preferences. These gaps could form priority targets for future research. Our analyses also revealed some emergent patterns in the data, especially in how gender-related preferences for broad groups of toys differed in some respects from those for dolls and vehicles, how study results varied according to study method, and how gender-related differences in toy preferences related to child age.

Toy Selection and Gender Categorization

The way that toys are selected, and categorized, as boy-related or girl-related, is not standardized in the present research. Studies in our review appeared to treat the gender categorization of toys as uncontroversial, even though, according to our review, it was not uncommon for toys to be assigned to different gender categories in different studies. For example, in some studies, blocks were classified as boy-related toys (e.g., Alexander & Saenz, 2012 ; Benenson et al., 1997 ; Fagot & Patterson, 1969 ), and in other studies they were classified as neutral toys (e.g., Cherney et al., 2003 ; Guinn, 1984 ; Wood, Desmarais, & Gugula, 2002 ). Similarly, drawing toys were sometimes categorized as girl-related toys (e.g., Berenbaum & Hines, 1992 ; Martin et al., 2013 ), and sometimes as neutral toys (e.g., Berenbaum & Snyder, 1995 ; Pasterski et al., 2005 ); and stuffed toys were equally likely to be classified as girl-related toys (e.g., DeLucia, 1963 ; Jacklin et al., 1973 ) as neutral toys (e.g., Alexander & Saenz, 2012 ; Idle et al., 1993 ; Moller & Serbin, 1996 ), but were also sometimes classified as boy-related toys (e.g., Stagnitti, Rodger, & Clarke, 1997 ). This pattern suggests that researchers sometimes disagree on what toys are boy-related, girl-related, or neutral.

In addition to finding that researchers sometimes disagreed on toy classifications, we also found that researchers typically did not report how they had selected toys for study or how they had assigned the toys to gender categories. We suspect that, in most cases, researchers used a simple heuristic method based on perceived cultural stereotypes. There are two problems with this type of approach. First, as noted above, toys categorized using this approach do not always fall into the same gender category in different studies. If one study includes a stuffed toy in the category “girls’ toys” and another study includes a stuffed toy in the category “neutral toys,” they may well report different results, even if the true underlying effect they are measuring is the same. Second, at its extreme, this problem may manifest as criterion contamination, in which gender-typed toys are defined by the results of the study. That is, the researchers may use many toys and select as “gender-related” toys the ones that they find to be differentially preferred by gender. At best, this tautology limits the generalizability of study results to other samples. At worst, it could invalidate the study.

Using methods that avoid confusion about toy categorization could be a priority for future research on children’s gender-related toy preferences. As also suggested by Fine ( 2015 ), this field could benefit from researchers specifying more clearly the ways in which they selected and categorized toys. Depending on the goal of the study, this selection and categorization might be based on different criteria. For example, a study examining whether stereotypes about children’s toy preferences relate to children’s actual preferences, might select toys based on adults’ independent ratings of the gender stereotyping of toys. In contrast, a study of the effect of a particular mechanism, such as social, cognitive, or hormonal influences, on toy preferences might select toys based on prior studies’ findings that certain toys are on average preferred by girls or boys. Overall, the important point is that researchers report more clearly how they selected toys and assigned toys to gender categories.

Researchers also have begun to investigate specific hypotheses about what characteristics of different toys might make them appeal more to boys or to girls. For instance, it has been suggested that color or shape might influence children’s gender-related preferences (e.g., Jadva et al., 2010 ; Weisgram et al., 2014 ; Wong & Hines, 2015 ). Similarly, it has been suggested that affordance of activity, motion, or propulsion might influence these preferences (Alexander & Hines, 2002 ; Benenson et al., 1997 ; Hassett et al., 2008 ; for a review, see Zosuls & Ruble, 2018 ). To evaluate these suggestions, it would be useful if researchers could provide color images, or full descriptions, of the toys used in the research they report. Similarly, it would be useful for this purpose, as well as for future reviews, if researchers could provide descriptive statistics, including means and SD or similar, by sex, for individual toys used, and not just for toy groupings.

To test whether the meta-analysis results were affected by researchers’ definitions of toy gender, we analyzed the subset of effect sizes that related to a very narrow definition of boy-related toys and girl-related toys: specifically, vehicles and dolls. These toys were the only ones for which sufficient data had been reported to allow reliable meta-analyses. The gender effects observed in the overall meta-analyses were broadly replicated with this more narrowly defined subset of toys, giving us confidence that our overall meta-analytic results were not entirely dependent on how researchers had chosen to categorize toys in regard to gender.

Furthermore, we found that girls’ gender-specific preference for dolls over vehicles was larger than their preference for broadly defined groups of girl-related toys. However, despite the large effect size, girls’ gender-specific preference for dolls over vehicles was not statistically significant, as this effect also showed large meta-analytic statistical variance. The large meta-analytic statistical variance is due to a combination of large variances in girls’ preference for dolls within the studies, variation between studies introducing additional statistical variance, and a smaller total number of studies that reported separate statistics for dolls as compared to broadly defined toy groups. In addition, the broadly defined toy groups included toys that, as mentioned above, were classified as neutral in some studies but girl-related in others. If toys are classified consistently, girls may show gender-related preferences at least as large as those of boys.

Culture and Gender-Related Toy Preferences

Cultural perceptions of play, including play with toys, may differ in different cultural, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups. For example, play is viewed as central to children’s cognitive and social development in many Western, technologically developed societies, but as less important in more traditional societies (Roopnarine, 2010 ). Children in different cultures may also have different referential concepts for appropriate gender-related behavior, due to cultural variation in gender norms (Pfeiffer & Butz, 2005 ; Wood & Eagly, 2002 ). This possibility is particularly relevant to toy preferences, because there may be cultural variations in the toys that are available, culturally relevant, and gender-related.

Nevertheless, little empirical research is presently available on cultural variation in gender-related toy preferences. Our review revealed that most toy preference studies focus on the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia. Of those studies conducted outside English-speaking industrialized nations, one was conducted in France (Le Maner-Idrissi, 1996 ), one in Finland (Lamminmäki et al., 2012 ), four in Sweden (Nelson, 2005 ; Nordenström, Servin, Bohlin, Larsson, & Wedell, 2002 ; Serbin et al., 2001 ; Servin, Bohlin, & Berlin, 1999 ), and one in the Netherlands (van de Beek et al., 2009 ). An additional study included some participants from Hungary, along with participants from the UK (Turner & Gervai, 1995 ). These studies did not report different results to the studies from the English-speaking countries, even when researchers had specifically hypothesized that they would (e.g., Nelson, 2005 ). In global perspective, however, these countries are very similar in terms of industrialization, wealth, education, media access, democracy, and gender equality. Consequently, children in these countries probably have very similar toys available to them and similar access to information about dominant social stereotypes around these toys. It remains an open question, then, whether children in cultures with radically different stereotype referents and social norms would show the same gender-related toy preferences to those found in the current meta-analysis.

We did not formally investigate other aspects of cultural diversity, such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status, because these also have not received much attention in empirical studies of gender-related toy preferences. Participants in most toy preference studies are not very ethnically diverse, and so it may not be practical to report results by ethnicity. We found three studies (out of our total 75) that reported toy preferences by ethnicity. Two of these studies were conducted in the USA and reported no significant differences in gender-related toy preferences between children of Hispanic and non-Hispanic background (Goble, 2012), or Native American and non-Native American background (Guinn, 1984 ). In contrast, another study based in the U.S. found that ethnicity might affect children’s preferences for gender-related activities, including play with toys, via children’s social networks (Martin et al., 2013 ). Furthermore, in recent years, the wider field of gender development research has paid increasing attention to the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and other identities (e.g., Shields, 2008 ). This trend in the wider field may translate in future to more studies investigating gender-related toy preferences in diverse social groups.

Methods of Measuring Toy Preference Are Important

Studies may find different gender effects on children’s toy preferences, depending on the method they use to measure toy preferences. We evaluated four categories of study methods: free play methods, where children were given access to a set of toys and observed playing, however, they liked; visual preference measures, where children were asked to look at pictures of toys; forced choice methods, where children were asked to choose toys or pictures of toys, typically in front of an experimenter; and naturalistic methods, where children’s toy options were not predefined by the researchers or other adults. We found that forced choice methods consistently showed larger gender differences than other methods.

There are two possible explanations for this pattern. One is the potential demand characteristics of forced choice paradigms. A request to publicly choose an option may be interpreted as evaluative by children, who then feel obliged to give the answer that they feel is “correct,” rather than indicate their actual preference. Children’s propensity to misunderstand requests for information as tests has been noted in other contexts (e.g., Lamb et al., 2003 ). Another possibility is that the paradigm creates a false dichotomy. In forced choice methods, the child is usually presented with one boy-related option and one girl-related option and asked to choose between them. There is usually not a neutral option, and, generally, the child must choose only one option and reject the other. In contrast, in a free play paradigm, children typically have more response options available, such as several toys associated with each gender, or neutral toys as well as gender-related toys. Even if only two toys are available, the child has more options than in most forced choice paradigms. For example, if a doll and a car are available, a child may choose to play with the doll, play with the car, play with both the doll and the car, or play with neither. In most forced choice methods, however, children must choose one and only one of two options.

Forced choice methods, in their current form, do not give comparable results to other methods of measuring gender-related toy preferences. Nevertheless, forced choice methods can be an efficient and easily administered measurement tool and therefore may be appropriate for studies where, for example, data need to be collected across a very large group or under difficult conditions. Future investigators wishing to measure gender-related toy preferences with an easily administered tool might do so, however, with the aim of minimizing artificial inflation in effect sizes. For instance, a procedure in which the experimenter cannot see which option the child selects, and the child knows that their response is not seen, might be useful. It also might be useful to include neutral options, as well as gender-related options, and allow the range of possible choices to include “both” or “neither.” These modifications of forced choice methods could provide results that are more comparable to other methods of measuring toy preference and perhaps are more reflective of children’s actual gender-related preferences.

Child Age and Gender-Related Toy Preferences

We found that gender differences in preferences for gender-related toys increased linearly with child age. Our results further suggested that this pattern could be explained by boys’ showing increased preference for gender-typical over gender-atypical toys with age, while girls’ preferences for gender-typical over gender-atypical toys did not increase significantly with age. Similarly, the previous meta-analysis of free play studies (Todd et al., 2018 ) found an increase in gender-related play with age in boys, although they did not find increasing gender differences. This may reflect a difference in the power of the two meta-analyses; the previous meta-analysis included 16 studies, whereas the current meta-analysis included 75 studies. We did not find significant curvilinear effects of age on children’s gender-related toy preferences.

Our findings of linear effects contrast with those of some prior investigations of age effects on children’s gender-related toy preferences. For example, Campbell et al. ( 2000 ) measured infants’ gender-related visual preferences longitudinally at ages 3, 9, and 18 months. They found that preferences did not change with age, but the infants were all very young compared to the age range in the wider literature and in the current meta-analysis.

In contrast, our meta-analytic findings suggest that boys’ and girls’ gender-related toy preferences increase with age in a linear fashion. These findings resemble findings for a broader measure of children’s gender-typical behavior, the Pre-School Activities Inventory (PSAI). The PSAI is a 24-item parent report inventory that asks about children’s gender-typed toy preferences and about children’s gender-related activity and playmate preferences. A longitudinal, population study in which the PSAI was completed by a parent to describe their child at ages 2, 3, and 5 years also found that both boys and girls became increasingly gender-typed with age (Golombok et al., 2008 ).

Our results suggest that children’s toy preferences might become more gender-related with age, as predicted by several theories of gender development. Children might be encouraged, through socialization pressures such as modeling and reinforcement, to prefer same gender-related toys, and the effects of this socialization may accumulate as they get older (Fagot, Rodgers, & Leinbach, 2000 ). Additionally, based on their early gender-related toy interests, children might gravitate to different social environments, enhancing their early preferences (Liben & Bigler, 2002 ; Martin et al., 2013 ). Finally, differences in children’s prenatal and early postnatal hormone exposure may dynamically interact with social environments and cognitive processes to increase children’s gender-related preferences over time (Hines, 2012 ). Together, these social and cognitive effects, and their interactions with early hormonal influences, may explain the linear increase in gender-related differences with age.

The findings of our meta-analysis, however, are not a substitute for a large, longitudinal study of children’s gender-related toy preferences. We used meta-analytic techniques to compare gender-related preferences in children from different age groups, reported in different studies. Our analysis, therefore, was cross-sectional and does not have the inferential power of a well-controlled longitudinal study. Our results would be best confirmed by a future longitudinal study of children’s gender-related toy preferences from infancy to pre-pubertal age. The longitudinal parent report study using the PSAI (Golombok et al., 2008 ) is the closest existing example and found similar results to our meta-analysis.

Gender-Related Toy Preferences Over Time

We found no change in the magnitude of gender-related differences in toy preferences across year of publication. The results of the moderator analyses suggested that gender effects on children’s toy preferences have remained generally constant in magnitude across the past five decades. This finding might seem surprising. Since the earliest studies on gender-related toy preferences, gender-atypical behavior and preferences have become increasingly socially acceptable. Perhaps the lack of any discernible pattern of change results from different social pressures influencing gender-related toy preferences in different directions. For example, growing acceptance of gender-atypical behavior may be countered by increasing gender segregation of the toy market.

Contrary to our results, a previous meta-analysis of children’s toy preferences (Todd et al., 2018 ) found that boys and girls played more with gender-related toys in earlier studies than in more recent studies. Todd et al. suggested that increasing gender equality in Western societies could influence children to play with neutral toys, due to increased advertising to children about gender-neutral toys. A recent analysis of online toy marketing, however, found that more toys were marketed for “boys only” or for “girls only” than for both (Auster & Mansbach, 2012 ), and an analysis of department store catalogs concluded that gender differentiation in toy advertising had increased since the 1980s as marketers employed gender stereotypes to encourage sales (Sweet, 2013 ). Taken together, these analyses challenge the view that gender-related toy advertising is decreasing with time. Alternatively, the previous finding could be partly explained by the smaller time frame considered in the prior meta-analytic review; the prior review covered about 35 years of research, while the present review covered 50 years.

It may be that children’s preferences are robust to social influences at this macrolevel; or that, despite social change, the underlying cultural environment regarding gendered toys has not changed. A similar result was found in a systematic review of gender stereotypes from the 1970s to the present. Rudman and Glick ( 2008 ) hypothesized that women’s changing social roles would be reflected in changing stereotypes of women. Although they found a change in women’s self-concept over time, they also found that more general stereotypes of women’s personalities had not changed. They suggested that the lack of change might be due to people viewing personality as part of the fundamental essence of gender, and therefore being reluctant to modify their stereotypic beliefs about personality. A similar explanation may also apply to toy preferences: if people view toy preferences as an essential part of a child’s gender, they may be unlikely to change their gender-related beliefs about toy preferences. Children may then adapt their actual toy preferences to reflect broader societal beliefs.

Limitations

The meta-analysis could only include data that were reported in the individual toy preference studies. Therefore, we could not analyze variables such as color or shape, or individual toys other than dolls and vehicles. In future research, if investigators report more information about toy characteristics and about individual toys, it may be possible to discover more about what characteristics of different toys make them more likely to be preferred by one gender or another.

Our literature search covers papers published to March 2014 and does not include papers published outside of this time frame. More recent papers may therefore be missing from the current meta-analysis. The current meta-analysis, however, synthesizes 50 years of research on toy preferences and finds that toy preference effect sizes have not changed significantly over time. Thus, results from a new review including more recent papers would be unlikely to differ from what we report.

We focused on gender-related preferences in typically developing children. Some studies selected participants specifically because they were not typically developing (for example, clinical samples of children with genetic variants causing atypical early hormone environments, or children who showed gender-related behavior that was noticeably different from their peers). To include these atypical populations in our study might have skewed the results, so we did not include them. Our results, therefore, may not apply to clinical populations.

Additionally, we meta-analyzed only direct measures of children’s toy preferences. We did not, for example, include parent report measures. Similarly, we did not include broader aspects of children’s gender-related behavior, such as activity preferences, playmate preferences, or sex role identification (e.g., Brown, 1956 ). Additionally, we did not search for these broader terms, so we may have missed papers that included toy preferences in a broader measure of sex role identification or androgyny (e.g., Zucker & Torkos, 1989 ). It would be interesting to know whether meta-analyses from these other sources of data and types of gender-related behavior would show similar outcomes. We hope that the current systematic review and meta-analysis will encourage such studies.

Conclusions

Meta-analyses of gender-related differences in children’s toy preferences found that gender differences and gender-specific effects on children’s toy preferences are large and reliable, and that some toys that researchers have classified as neutral may actually be preferred by girls. Also, the meta-analytic results suggest that girls and boys show gender-related differences of similar magnitude, both for broad groups of toys and for dolls and vehicles, specifically. In addition, forced choice methods show larger gender-related differences than other methods, and gender-related differences increase with age, but have not changed in size over historical time. Few prior studies have reported data for individual toys or for varied cultures, ethnicities, or socioeconomic groups. Future research could usefully report how toys were chosen for study and classified into gender categories and report descriptive statistics for the individual toys used. Useful future studies might analyze children’s gender-related toy preferences in different cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic groups.

Acknowledgements

J. T. M. Davis was supported by a Gates Cambridge scholarship during the production of this work.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

1 Interested readers may contact corresponding author for the references that were gathered in the systematic search but were not included in the meta-analysis.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

(Asterisk indicates studies that appeared in the meta-analysis)
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Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys

Anya Kamenetz

Cory Turner

Gendered toys are more common today than ever before.

With Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty on one side and bulbous-headed Fart Ninjas on the other, the gender divide was impossible to avoid at the North American International Toy Fair in New York City back in February.

The light-up Barbie mermaids vying for space with Gatling-style foam-dart blasters in Manhattan's Javits Center raised a question: Have toys really progressed since our grandparents' days? And how do the toys we play with shape the people we grow up to be?

Parenting: Difficult Conversations

The problem with toy guns and princesses.

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We set out to answer these and related questions in our latest episode of Life Kit's podcast Parenting: Difficult Conversations , with help from Sesame Workshop.

Toys are getting more gendered

Researcher Elizabeth Sweet studied toy catalogs and ads over time and found that toys are actually more gender divided than they were half a century ago.

Rebecca Hains, a professor at Salem State University in Massachusetts, has written a book about it: The Princess Problem : Guiding Our Girls Through The Princess-Obsessed Years.

Disney characters, she points out, used to be more diverse: There was Cinderella, sure, but also Pinocchio and Bambi. When 1989's The Little Mermaid made a splash, Hains says, "Disney realized profitability in girls." Enter the juggernaut Disney Princess brand. Plus, marketers now cloak even gender-neutral toys like blocks in both primary and pastel shades in the hope of selling more sets.

A unicorn and her accessories at the North American International Toy Fair in New York in February. Diane Bondareff/AP hide caption

A unicorn and her accessories at the North American International Toy Fair in New York in February.

Even with several women vying to be the United States' next president, and even with a greater awareness of the spectrum of gender identity than we've ever had in our culture, Hains says, "it's almost like kids are subject to stereotypes that we've evolved out of elsewhere."

And these stereotypes can stick.

In a 2013 study of undergraduate women, one-third identified themselves as "princesses." They placed a higher value on the physical attractiveness of a mate, were less likely to want to join the workforce after college and were more likely to say they wanted to marry a breadwinner. And when all the women were given puzzles to solve, the "princesses" quit faster.

(This study, a conference paper, is described and cited in this paper , co-authored by Sarah Coyne, which similarly showed that girls who preferred playing princesses showed more gender-stereotyped behavior a full year later.)

Researchers haven't proved that all little girls who like tutus will grow up to be entitled quitters. But play does prepare children for life, so boys and girls both need broad options, says Rosemarie Truglio, a developmental psychologist and vice president of education and research for Sesame Workshop.

"It's OK for me to like pink things and pretty things and frilly things, but it shouldn't define who I am and shouldn't define what I will be in the future," Truglio says. "Anyone who is singly defined doesn't make a really interesting person."

Here are our takeaways for how to handle toy problems.

1. Bans will backfire — no pun intended.

Fart Ninjas wore their primary colors to the toy fair in New York. Andrew Kelly/AP hide caption

Fart Ninjas wore their primary colors to the toy fair in New York.

You can certainly outlaw a toy that makes you uncomfortable, but consider this:

"I don't think banning anything is the answer," Truglio says. She found this out the hard way as a mom herself. At first "we had the rule: No [toy] guns in our home," she says. But she realized that all her young son's friends were playing with them, typically in the hallway of their apartment building.

Group play and the friendship that comes with it are so important for kids, Truglio believes, that she decided to allow the toy gun, with conditions. Besides, if you say no, the odds are that the toy will become even more coveted, she says.

2. How they play is more important than what they play with.

The Problem With Toy Guns And Princesses

No toy is inherently good or wicked, says Lisa Dinella, a gender studies professor at Monmouth University and co-author of the aforementioned 2013 princess study. With a gun, "you can be really, really aggressive, or you can just be shooting targets." Equally, a princess game could be all about being pretty, or it could have a sophisticated plot.

One red flag, Truglio says, is when there's no variety to a child's play. For example, if your child wants to play with only toy guns, and the play is always aggressive, then that could be a sign for you, as a parent, to step in and find out what's really troubling the child.

3. Parents can counter sexist messages.

Dinella says kids start learning gender stereotypes before they're out of diapers. "Between 18 months and 2 years is the first time we're starting to see their awareness."

They learn by watching us. Studies show that parents perceive newborn girls as more delicate and newborn boys as being stronger. On the playground, mothers intervene with girls , seeing physical risks, more often.

"So it's really hard to separate out toy preference from gender socialization that is so insidious," Hains says.

Boppi the Booty Shakin' Llama, from Zuru's Pets Alive line, combines llamas and butts, two top trends at the North American International Toy Fair. Stuart Ramson/AP hide caption

Boppi the Booty Shakin' Llama, from Zuru's Pets Alive line, combines llamas and butts, two top trends at the North American International Toy Fair.

Dinella has done several experiments on how heavy gender branding influences kids' toy choices. In one, she and her team painted a bunch of toys white. Without color cues, both boys and girls gravitated toward neutral playthings like Play-Doh and the Etch A Sketch.

In another experiment, titled "Pink Gives Girls Permission," Dinella and her co-authors flipped the traditional color patterns: pink trucks and camouflage-clad baby dolls. She found that "there's a bigger barrier to boys playing with girl things and acting like girls than for girls to be able to venture into some of these cross-gender plays."

Dinella says you can see this inequity in how hard our culture still comes down on the little boys who love princesses and sparkly things.

This is too bad, she says, because toys can teach important and sometimes unexpected skills. Dolls prepare boys for future roles as fathers and help them practice empathy. Acting out a tea party can help children learn "cognitive sequencing of events: the beginning, the middle and the end of a task." In other words, a tea set can introduce one of the foundations of computer coding.

So Dinella suggests that, when toy shopping, strive for gender balanced as well as gender neutral. Try saying something like, "You have four dolls already, so how about ... also getting a truck?"

Or, "Can we get it in the white version so that all of the kids, when they come to our house, can play with it, instead of just the pink version?"

4. Talk to your kids directly, and share your values around toys.

A girl dressed as a mermaid worked the runway at a fashion show at the toy show. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

A girl dressed as a mermaid worked the runway at a fashion show at the toy show.

Dinella is also a mother, and she didn't ban toy guns either. But she does let her children know that she's not wild about them. "I'm never going to say, 'Hey, we haven't played with the Nerf guns a lot lately! Let's get those out!' "

In other cases, she says, you can be more direct. "You can say, 'This dress-up toy that was given to you, although it's really sparkly ... it does really talk to you about being pretty. And I would rather you spend time trying to get smart."

5: Join in your child's play to further expand the possibilities.

If a foam-dart shootout is getting out of hand, ordering the combatants to timeout isn't all that effective, says Truglio. Instead, "maybe you take on a character role ... who is going to stop this type of aggression."

Hains tells the story of a father who played princesses with his daughter — but would get out the firetruck and send the princesses out on rescue missions.

The good news is that we may be getting a little more help these days from pop culture. Characters like the powerful Elsa, the adventurous Moana, Wonder Woman and the new Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, are pushing the envelope for female heroines.

Another of Dinella's studies suggests that they are having an impact. She asked preschoolers — both boys and girls — to describe themselves and also to describe what they knew about princesses. Not surprisingly, they described princesses as the typical girly girl who needs to be rescued.

Researchers then showed the children video clips of more recent princesses, like Merida from Brave, taking action and being powerful. Then they asked the same questions again.

Watching those images changed the children's perceptions of princesses, and, Dinella says, it changed kids' own self-descriptions too.

After seeing princesses being powerful, both the girls and the boys described themselves as more multidimensional: "They [would] say: 'I am strong. I am powerful. I am a leader.' But also, 'I am caring, and I share.' "

In other words, when kids anywhere on the gender spectrum spend time with characters who are more complex, it can change the way they see themselves.

Truglio sums it up this way. "Kids play what they see. If you can see it, you can play it — then one day you can be it."

Toys Are More Divided by Gender Now Than They Were 50 Years Ago

Even at times when discrimination was much more common, catalogs contained more neutral appeals than advertisements today.

When it comes to buying gifts for children, everything is color-coded: Rigid boundaries segregate brawny blue action figures from pretty pink princesses, and most assume that this is how it’s always been. But in fact, the princess role that’s ubiquitous in girls’ toys today was exceedingly rare prior to the 1990s—and the marketing of toys is more gendered now than even 50 years ago, when gender discrimination and sexism were the norm.

In my research on toy advertisements, I found that even when gendered marketing was most pronounced in the 20th century, roughly half of toys were still being advertised in a gender-neutral manner. This is a stark difference from what we see today, as businesses categorize toys in a way that more narrowly forces kids into boxes. For example, a recent study by sociologists Carol Auster and Claire Mansbach found that all toys sold on the Disney Store’s website were explicitly categorized as being “for boys” or “for girls”—there was no “for boys and girls” option, even though a handful of toys could be found on both lists.

That is not to say that toys of the past weren’t deeply infused with gender stereotypes. Toys for girls from the 1920s to the 1960s focused heavily on domesticity and nurturing. For example, a 1925 Sears ad for a toy broom-and-mop set proclaimed: “Mothers! Here is a real practical toy for little girls. Every little girl likes to play house, to sweep, and to do mother’s work for her":

Such toys were clearly designed to prepare young girls to a life of homemaking, and domestic tasks were portrayed as innately enjoyable for women. Ads like this were still common, though less prevalent, into the 1960s—a budding housewife would have felt right at home with the toys to “delight the little homemaker” in the 1965 Sears Wishbook:

While girls’ toys focused on domesticity, toys for boys from the '20s through the '60s emphasized preparation for working in the industrial economy. For example, a 1925 Sears ad for an Erector Set stated, “Every boy likes to tinker around and try to build things. With an Erector Set he can satisfy this inclination and gain mental development without apparent effort. … He will learn the fundamentals of engineering”:

However, gender-coded toy advertisements like these declined markedly in the early 1970s. By then, there were many more women in the labor force and, after the Baby Boom, marriage and fertility rates had dropped. In the wake of those demographic shifts and at the height of feminism's second-wave, playing upon gender stereotypes to sell toys had become a risky strategy. In the Sears catalog ads from 1975, less than 2 percent of toys were explicitly marketed to either boys or girls. More importantly, there were many ads in the ‘70s that actively challenged gender stereotypes—boys were shown playing with domestic toys and girls were shown building and enacting stereotypically masculine roles such as doctor, carpenter, and scientist:

Although gender inequality in the adult world continued to diminish between the 1970s and 1990s, the de-gendering trend in toys was short-lived. In 1984, the deregulation of children’s television programming suddenly freed toy companies to create program-length advertisements for their products, and gender became an increasingly important differentiator of these shows and the toys advertised alongside them. During the 1980s, gender-neutral advertising receded, and by 1995, gendered toys made up roughly half of the Sears catalog’s offerings—the same proportion as during the interwar years.

However, late-century marketing relied less on explicit sexism and more on implicit gender cues, such as color, and new fantasy-based gender roles like the beautiful princess or the muscle-bound action hero. These roles were still built upon regressive gender stereotypes—they portrayed a powerful, skill-oriented masculinity and a passive, relational femininity—that were obscured with bright new packaging. In essence, the "little homemaker" of the 1950s had become the "little princess" we see today.

It doesn’t have to be this way. While gender is what’s traditionally used to sort target markets, the toy industry (which is largely run by men ) could categorize its customers in a number of other ways—in terms of age and interest, for example. (This could arguably broaden the consumer base.) However, the reliance on gender categorization comes from the top: I found no evidence that the trends of the past 40 years are the result of consumer demand. That said, the late-20th-century increase in the percentage of Americans who believe in gender differences suggests that the public wasn’t exactly rejecting gendered toys, either.

While the second-wave feminist movement challenged the tenets of gender difference, the social policies to create a level playing field were never realized and a cultural backlash towards feminism began to gain momentum in the 1980s. In this context, the model outlined in Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus— which implied that women gravitated toward certain roles not because of oppression but because of some innate preference—took hold. This new tale of gender difference, which emphasizes freedom and choice, has been woven deeply into the fabric of contemporary childhood. The reformulated story does not fundamentally challenge gender stereotypes; it merely repackages them to make them more palatable in a “post-feminist” era. Girls can be anything—as long as it’s passive and beauty-focused.

Many who embrace the new status quo in toys claim that gender-neutrality would be synonymous with taking away choice, in essence forcing children to become androgynous automatons who can only play with boring tan objects. However, as the bright palette and diverse themes found among toys from the ‘70s demonstrates, decoupling them from gender actually widens the range of options available. It opens up the possibility that children can explore and develop their diverse interests and skills, unconstrained by the dictates of gender stereotypes. And ultimately, isn’t that what we want for them?

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What the Research Says: Gender-Typed Toys

Judith Elaine Blakemore is professor of psychology and associate dean of Arts and Sciences for Faculty Development at Indiana University−Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her primary research interest is the development of gender roles. We also spoke to Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, professor at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, about the impact of specific toys on play .

Tell us about your toy research.

Professor Blakemore : We identified more than 100 toys and classified them to indicate how much each toy was associated with boys, girls, or neither.

In general the toys most associated with boys were related to fighting or aggression (wrestlers, soldiers, guns, etc.), and the toys most associated with girls were related to appearance (Barbie dolls and accessories, ballerina costumes, makeup, jewelry, etc.).

We then divided the toys into six categories, based on these ratings: (1) strongly feminine, (2) moderately feminine, (3) neutral, (5) moderately masculine, and (6) strongly masculine. Toys were then rated according to their characteristics, such as able to be manipulated, exciting, educational, aggressive, musical, etc.

We found that girls’ toys were associated with physical attractiveness, nurturing, and domestic skill, whereas boys’ toys were rated as violent, competitive, exciting, and somewhat dangerous. The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children’s physical, cognitive, artistic, and other skills were typically categorized as neutral or moderately masculine. We concluded that strongly gender-typed toys appear to be less supportive of optimal development than neutral or moderately gender-typed toys.

What message do you think early childhood teachers and other educators could take from your research?

Professor Blakemore : If you want to develop children's physical, cognitive, academic, musical, and artistic skills, toys that are not strongly gender-typed are more likely to do this.

What message about toys do you think families of young children could take from your research?

Professor Blakemore : For parents, it’s the same message as for teachers: Strongly gender-typed toys might encourage attributes that aren’t ones you actually want to foster. For girls, this would include a focus on attractiveness and appearance, perhaps leading to a message that this is the most important thing—to look pretty. For boys, the emphasis on violence and aggression (weapons, fighting, and aggression) might be less than desirable in the long run.

Also, moderately masculine toys have many positive qualities (spatial skills, science, building things, etc.) that parents might want to encourage in both boys and girls. Perhaps, to some extent, it is the same for some moderately feminine toys (nurturance, care for infants, developing skills in cooking and housework).

What's the most surprising thing you think your research tells us about children, toys, and play?

Professor Blakemore : I am not sure how surprising this is to me but it might be to parents: Moderately masculine toys encourage children's physical, cognitive, academic, musical, and artistic skills more so than moderately feminine ones.

How contemporary toys enforce gender stereotypes in the UK Research Paper

Research proposal, statement of methods, research paper, reference list, research questions.

The research topic is “How contemporary toys enforce gender stereotypes in the UK.” The key research question is: Do toys reflect old stereotypes in gender?. The minor research questions include: How do toys represent their subjects in terms of gender?, In what ways are these representations symptomatic of real life?, Do those representations lead to stereotypes in adult life?.

The research methodology implies the use of quantitative methods, particularly cross-sections surveys. For the survey four toys have been chosen – two for boys and two for girls. The surveys contain questions about these toys, their appearances, as well as gender-related questions.

The study premises on the answers of fifteen girls at age 8-11 and fifteen boys at similar age category. The survey is based on questionnaires that were specifically developed for this research. The questionnaires contained predominantly multiple-choice questions, several open-ended questions, and some general questions. The toys represented various functions that are traditionally assigned to women and men in society.

Children’s parents also took in survey to define the degree of gender representation in the toys chosen for the experiment. The toys should be scaled as female oriented (scale from 1-4), gender neutral (5 points), and male oriented (from 6 to 9 points). In this study, 18 couples (9 fathers and 9 mothers) agreed to participate in the research analysis of their choices in buying toys for their children. Children also had to go through interviews were recorded by the research participants. The interviews were conducted in the presence of their parents.

Data collection will involve a three step process in which four toys from Tesco will be selected. Two must account for either of the genders. Thereafter, the researcher will analyze the items on the basis of dominant signs or representations. Certain patterns on gender will be identified from the signs and these will be structured in accordance with semiotic ideas. Finally, the patterns will be related to the research questions and similarities found.

Introduction

The research topic is “How contemporary toys enforce gender stereotypes in the UK.” Scholars have argued that a semiotic relationship exists in toys and this perpetuates gender stereotypes. Girls and boys learn about society’s expectations about their gender from what they interact with, and toys are one such example. Therefore, the key research question is: Do toys reflect old stereotypes in gender? The minor research questions include: How do toys represent their subjects in terms of gender?, In what ways are these representations symptomatic of real life?, Do those representations lead to stereotypes?. The research will employ semiotic content analysis to answer the research questions.

Literature review

Toys are an important semiotic resource in that they illustrate social identities and social roles. Therefore, an analysis of their representation is critical in determining social relationships. This research is particularly interested in gender representations. Leeuwe explains that dolls create certain roles among their users.

They are interactive in nature; consequently, their kinesthetic designs will determine the role that a child will take on when playing with them. For instance, a teddy bear has lots of fur in order to encourage the child to cuddle it. Alternatively, a spider man toy may have provisions for sticking on walls. Therefore, the kinesthetic design of a doll will determine how a child will interact with it. With time, children will learn about societal rules and what they can or cannot do with their toys. [1]

A toy has an identity depending on its physical features. The color of the toy, its anatomical features, the build, its skin color, hair length and other features all form part of a toy’s identity. These features are unique markers of the child’s or manufacturer’s culture. For instance, many dolls in western culture have females with blond hair as a measure of what western culture considers conventional.

Finally, toys carry meaning in their design and representation. The traits in a toy will provide clues about what they symbolize. For instance, some toys may possess huge muscles or large breasts depending on the meaning they want to convey. Sometimes, their physical features may have a comic effect or they may represent society’s expectations about the toy. Toys are, therefore, useful in engaging in a discourse analysis about their social worlds. [2] Their roles, identities and meanings answer pertinent questions concerning society.

Methodology

The study was premised on the results from the surveys designed for children and parents. To begin with, parents should label the selected toys in relation to gender functions they performed.

The scale that was designed for this study ranged from1 to 9 points, where female-related roles were highlighted by points from 1 to 4, gender-neutral toys were labeled as 5 and male-related toys were evaluated from 5 to 9 points. The proposed scales helped to classify the toys in accordance with gender stereotypes and parents’ attitude to them.

The parents sample included 18 couples with 9 fathers and 9 mothers, who were gathered through mass-mailing and phone calls. The information about electronic mail address and phone numbers were taken from the database from the school in which their children studied.

The average age of parents was about 37.3 years. The scale developed for estimating gender appropriateness sought to define how parents understood the functions that the toys could perform in children’s games (See Appendix 2). The toys were designed for children under the age from 8 to 11.

There were 30 children (15 boys and 15 girls) who also participated in the study who should define the roles and function that each toy could perform during the play. The cross-sectional survey implied interviewing each child individually to achieve the accuracy and objectivity of results.

Both parents and children were presented to four toys. Two toys – Baby Annabel Function Doll and Barbie Doggie Water Park – were designed for girls whereas Bob The Builder Construction Tower and Transformers 3 Ultimate Optimus Prime were selected for boys.

Apart from the gender stereotype scale, parents will be presented with the appropriateness scale that can allow them to determine whether these toys are relevant for children to play. This survey relied on the study Campenni who applied to several characteristics, including appropriateness of toys for girls and for boys in terms of the roles and functions they perform [3] .

Before parents and children were chosen for survey analysis, parents were informed about the purpose and scope of research and were proposed to participate in the research studies. The explanation was also provided to parent’s children who were interviewed in the presence of their parents.

The questionnaire developed for children aims to learn the way they perceived and understood gender roles and functions each toy performs. The questions were composed of open-ended and general type, which contributed to the credibility and validity of the study. The results of the study were processed to define the main attributes that children assigned to these toys.

The study utilized semiotic principles in order to identify connotations of gender in four types of toys. The researcher selected the toys on the basis of their popularity in Tesco retail chains. For girls’ toys, the two items were “Baby Annabel Function Doll” and “Barbie Doggie Water Park”. For boys the two items were “Bob The Builder Construction Tower” and “Transformers 3 Ultimate Optimus Prime” [4] . Both genders had a singular toy and a set.

Children defined some of the physical attributes of the toys. “Baby Annabell Function Doll” is a likeness of a baby in that it that it has the size and physical features of a baby. The doll’s mouth allows one to insert a pacifier or a feeding bottle. Additionally, the doll is battery-powered, so it makes noises similar to that of a real baby when it wakes up.

This works whenever the doll opens its eyes after closing them. Some parts of the doll are made of soft material especially on the torso while the hands, and head are plastic. The doll wears colorful material and clothes that are similar to those of a real child. The colors of choice are white and pink.

Conversely, “Barbie Doggie Water Park” is a collection of a Barbie doll walking her dog at a park. The set has three puppies, a picnic basket and blanket, bones, a dog, a handbag for Barbie a well as some scenes from the park. Barbie looks straight at the buyer and firmly holds the dog’s string as she moves along.

She is wearing a colorful pink and purple blouse and a short orange skirt. The doll also has roller skates and knee pads to protect her in case she falls. Barbie also has long blond hair, and blue eyes. Children can comb her hair with a comb from her bag.

Bob the Builder Construction Tower is a series of parts that allow children to create a water tower. The parts consist of a series of staircases, walls, pulleys, wheelbarrows and floors. The child is supposed to use a pictorial depiction of the completed tower to create the whole item. It is made up of bold colors like yellow and red.

Transformers 3 Ultimate Optimus Prime is a black and red robot from the Transformers series. ‘Transformers’ is a successful film trilogy that many boys love and enjoy. Children have the option of reassembling the robot into a vehicle so they can decide how to play with it. The toy makes missile and battle sounds. It also has flowing weapons that are intended on scaring away enemies. The transformer looks like an alien owing to its weird antennas, wing-like creatures and its numerous extensions.

Data Analysis

Baby Annabel Function Doll represents women as nurturers. A baby naturally requires nurturing; therefore, if a manufacturer is selling such a toy, then he or she intends on perpetuating that stereotype. Considerable interactions with such types of dolls will prepare children for their future roles as mothers. [5]

Unlike Transformer 3, Baby Annabel cannot be deconstructed. The child playing with this doll cannot exercise her duty as a creator. Instead, she must accept that she is a consumer.

Annabel’s set comes with a series of pacifiers, baby bottles and other items. Such a depiction has an adverse implication on what society expects from women as adults. Most manufacturers make their products for women. Cosmetics, household items, and clothes are largely intended for the female consumer. Therefore, this doll is preparing the girl for her role as a consumer in adult life.

Conversely, Transformers 3 is a stand-alone toy. It does not come with several other items like pacifiers. Instead, the toy repeats certain noises that mirror the battlefield. Nothing about the toy signifies care; the boy who plays can take on the role of an action figure in a battle. He has the capacity to defeat his enemies and become a winner.

The toy reflects an outgoing person who does not have to confine himself to domestic situations. This is reflective of what society expects from boys as they grow older. Additionally, the movements of the toys indicate that the child can explore and learn about new things. [6]

Bob the Builder Construction Tower allows the child to pretend to be an engineer or architect. The fact that it is called ‘Bob’ indicates that it is meant for boys. Clearly, the construction site is a very versatile place for the boy to aspire. The toy proves that manufacturers are offering boys more options than girls. They can think about their future professions and relate to them. Bob the Builder is conditioning boys to become direct participants in the economy when they become older.

On the flipside, Barbie Doggie Water Park has no such professional roles. Barbie is walking her dog on roller skates. Her physical attributes accentuate her femininity; such as a curvy body and long legs. One cannot help but notice her physical attractiveness.

The fact that the manufacturers placed a comb in her bag indicates that Barbie must be preoccupied with her appearance. Such a factor will condition Barbie to become conscious about her looks. In the future, it is likely that she will seek approval from others because of this preoccupation with physical attributes. [7]

Boys have more options than girls in the world of toys. This conditions them for their future adult roles in which the same distinctions exist. The kinesthetic design of the toys is a sign that signifies power relations among the gender. Annabel the doll is seated while Transformer 3 is standing with its legs part. Additionally Barbie is preoccupied with her appearance while Bob the Builder is not even on the set. These positions indicate that girls must care about appeasing others. The stand-alone nature of Transformer 3 shows that boys should be independent. It is standing with its legs apart to demonstrate confidence. [8] These are all qualities that society expects from men in adulthood. Additionally, the baby who is seating down has less control than the Transformer 3 who is ready for attack. Power relations of control in the male gender are evident through this kinesthetic design. Boys can change the transformer into a car or they can construct “Bob the Builder’ into something tangible. A lot of rigidity is present in girl’s toys as they can barely move their toys. Girls thus learn that exploration is not a welcome trait. In adult life, it is not surprising that many of them will seek assistance when performing physical tasks like changing tires. Such toys stifle their creative tendencies. [9]

The identity of the toys also has a lot to show about what society expects from women. The aesthetics of the toys are symptomatic of gender stereotypes. Baby Annabel is dressed in pink and white. It has big eyes and chubby cheeks designed to elicit nurturing and caring reactions. Conversely, Transformers 3 or Bob the builder have daring and bold colors designed to encourage the child to do something with it. Girls toys tend to cause them to become more relational while boys toys emphasize practical aspects of things or aggression.

The four research items have proved that contemporary toys still enforce gender stereotypes. Girls’ toys teach them how to become consumers, submissive nurturers and affirmation seekers. On the other hand, boys’ toys condition them for independence, assertiveness, confidence and production in their adult life.

Blakemore, Judith & Renee Centers. “Characteristics of boys’ and girls’ toys.” Sex Roles Journal 53, no. 9(2005): 619-634.

Bell, Susan. “How to use semiotics in qualitative research.” Susan Bell Research . Web.

Campenni, C. Estelle. 1999. “Gender Stereotyping of Children’s Toys: A Comparison of Parents and Nonparents.” Sex Roles 40, no. 1/2: 121-138.

Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics . London: Routledge, 2002.

Cherney, Ian, Linda Kelly-Vance & Kate Glover. “The effects of stereotyped toys and gender on play assessment in children aged 18–47 months.” Educational Psychology no. 23(2003), 95–105.

Keramyda, Maria. “Social and ideological Stereotypes in Children’s toy advertisements in Greek Television.” Applied Semiotics no. 22(2009): 203-225.

Squidoo. “Tesco Top 10 Toys for Christmas 2012.” Squidoo . Web.

Stengling, Maya. “Binding: a resource for exploring interpersonal meaning in 3D space.” Social Semiotics 18, no. 4(2008): 425-447.

Van Leeuwen, Theo. “The world according to Playmobil.” Semiotica Journal 173, no. 1(2009): 299-315

Van Leeuwen, Theo & C. Caldas-Coulthard. The semiotics of kinetic design . Wales: Cardiff University Press, 2002.

Wood, Wendy & A. Eagly. “A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences.” Psychological Bulletin no. 128 (2002), 699–727.

Appendix 1: Toys Images

Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire

Which roles do you assign to the proposed toys:
Female-related roles;
Gender roles;
Male-related;
Which factors influence your decision to buy a toy?
To entertain a child;
To develop his mental and physical skills;
Do you buy toys to develop gender roles among your children?
Why do you prefer buying role-related toys?
For developing gender roles;
For engaging them into a game;

Appendix 3: Survey Results

Figure 1: Gender Appropriateness

Appendix 4: Survey Questions (for children)

How do you describe your toy?
Interesting;
Which of the toys do you like most?
Superheroes;
Do you like your toy?
What games can you play using this toy?
Assigning various roles to toys;
Entertaining each other;
What role do you perform in game with this toy?
Active player;
Passive player;
Do you want to play with children with the same toy or you prefer playing alone?
Play with children;
Playing alone;
Theo Van Leeuwen, “The world according to Playmobil,” Semiotica Journal 173, no. 1(2009): 299-315
Maria Keramyda, “Social and ideological Stereoptypes in Children’s toy advertisements in Greek Television,” Applied Semiotics no. 22(2009): 203-225.
Estelle C. Campenni,. “Gender Stereotyping of Children’s Toys: A Comparison of Parents and Nonparents.” Sex Roles 40, no. 1, (1999): 133.
Squidoo, “Tesco Top 10 Toys for Christmas 2012,” Squidoo , Last modified January 2013.
Wendy Wood & A Eagly, “A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences,” Psychological Bulletin no. 128 (2002), 699–727.
Judith Blakemore, & Renee Centers, “Characteristics of boys’ and girls’ toys,” Sex Roles Journal 53, no. 9(2005): 619-634
Ian Cherney, Linda Kelly-Vance & Kate Glover, “The effects of stereotyped toys and gender on play assessment in children aged 18–47 months,” Educational Psychology no. 23(2003), 95–105.
Maya Stengling, “Binding: a resource for exploring interpersonal meaning in 3D space,” Social Semiotics 18, no. 4(2008): 425-447.
Theo Van Leeuwen & C Caldas-Coulthard, The semiotics of kinetic design (Wales: Cardiff University Press, 2002), 41-53.
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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How Large Are Gender Differences in Toy Preferences? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Toy Preference Research

Melissa Hines

Introduction

Gender-Related Toys

Methods of Measuring Toy Preferences

Visual Preference

Forced Choice

Naturalistic Methods

Year of Study

Previous Reviews of Toy Preference Research

The Current Review and Meta-Analysis

Systematic Search Method

Inclusion Criteria

Effect Size Calculation

Meta-analysis Models

Types of Toys: Dolls and Vehicles

Study Method, Child Age, and Year of Publication

Publication Bias

Statistical Software

Systematic Search Results

Description of Toy Preference Studies

Table 1

Gender Effects on Toy Preferences

Gender Difference in Preference for Girl-Related Toys

Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Boy-Related Toys Over Girl-Related Toys

Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Girl-Related Toys Over Boy-Related Toys

Gender Difference in Preference for Neutral Toys

Vehicles and Dolls Compared to Broader Gender-Related Groups of Toys

Gender Difference in Preference for Dolls

Boys’ Gender-Specific Preference for Vehicles Over Dolls

Girls’ Gender-Specific Preference for Dolls Over Vehicles

Vehicles and Dolls Compared to Broader Toy Groupings

Moderator Analyses

Method of Measuring Preference

The Effect of Method of Measuring Preference on the Gender Difference in Preference for Boy-Related Toys