Delivering Diversity
Clare Willets from online retailer 'Not only Pink and Blue' shares her experience on challenging the stereotypical views about gender.
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t’s not that long ago that it was illegal for women to wear trousers. The law in France banning women wearing trousers was over-turned in 2013! We assume that these rules are a thing of the past and we often focus on girls being empowered; but from hairstyles to careers and pockets to sports, if we take a look at the messages we give our children we can see how pervasive these stereotypes still are.
60% of parents are worried about gender stereotyping
An increasing number of parents who are aware of gender stereotypes. A recent Fawcett Society study found that 60% of parents are worried about gender stereotyping. We often acknowledge the limitations that gender stereotypes place on girls’ but we are also starting to see the limitations they place on boys as well. Research carried out by Let Toys be Toys looking
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at toy catalogues found that only 13% of children playing ‘caregiving’ activities were boys. Yet a study by Dr Paola Escudero and researchers from MARCS BabyLab found that five month-old boy babies were more engaged with images of dolls than cars. When we look at the way clothes and toys are divided in our shops and online stores it’s easy to see how stereotypes can be reinforced. It’s around 3 or 4 years old that children start to understand the concept of boys and girls and they quickly learn which of those categories they fit into. Equally as quickly the short cuts for those (pink or blue, caring or active, quiet or boisterous) fall into place around how they are ‘supposed’ to act. We only have to look at the slogans on clothing to tell us. The pink tops with ‘cute’, ‘smile’, ‘love’ and the blue tops with ‘adventure’, ‘hero’, ‘boisterous’ are clear for us all to see and that language gets imbued into the colours in-turn becoming short cuts for those stereotypes – pretty in pink.
