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Lego has announced that it will work to remove gender stereotypes from its toys after a global survey commissioned by the company found that attitudes towards gambling and future careers remain uneven and restrictive.
The researchers found that while girls became more confident and eager to engage in a wide range of activities, the same did not hold true for boys.
Seventy-one percent of the boys surveyed feared they would be laughed at if they played with what they called “girl’s toys” – a fear shared by their parents. “Parents are more concerned that their sons will be teased than their daughters for playing with toys associated with the opposite sex,” said Madeline Di Nonno, executive director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media , who conducted the research.
“But it is also that the behaviors associated with men are more valued in society,” explains Di Nonno. “Until societies recognize that the behaviors and activities commonly associated with women are as valuable or important, parents and children will attempt to adopt them. “
The study found that parents always encouraged sons to play sports or Stem activities – science, technology, engineering and math, while daughters were offered to dance and dress (daughters were five times more likely to be encouraged in these activities than boys) or to bake. (three times more likely to be encouraged).
“This information highlights how deeply rooted gender bias is in the world,” says Geena Davis, the Oscar-winning actress and activist who founded the institute in 2004 to fight negative gender stereotypes and promote inclusion.
“There is an asymmetry,” explains Professor Gina Rippon, neurobiologist and author of The Gendered Brain. “We encourage girls to play with ‘boy’ stuff, but not the other way around. “
This was a problem because the toys provided “training opportunities,” she said. “So if girls aren’t playing with Lego or other construction toys, they’re not developing the space skills that will help them later in life. If the dolls are pushed on the girls but not on the boys, then the boys lack educational skills. “
The Danish toy maker commissioned the report for the United Nations International Day of the Girl on Monday. She interviewed nearly 7,000 parents and children aged 6 to 14 from China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“We are working hard to make Lego more inclusive,” says Julia Goldin, director of product and marketing at Lego Group, the world’s largest toy maker.
Since early 2021, the Geena Davis Institute has been auditing Lego and consulting to “fight gender bias and damaging stereotypes,” and the company has pledged to remove gender bias from its lines.
“Traditionally, Lego has been viewed by more boys, but products like [arts and crafts line] Lego Dots or Lego City Wildlife Rescue Camp were specially designed to appeal to boys and girls, ”says Goldin. Lego’s mandate now is to promote education and caring as well as spatial awareness, creative reasoning and problem solving.
The Let Toys Be Toys campaign was launched in 2012 in the UK to pressure children’s brands to expand their marketing and include both genders, so that no boy or girl thinks they are playing with them. “The wrong toy”. But progress is slow. A 2020 Fawcett Society report showed how “lazy stereotypes” and sex segregation of toys fueled a mental health crisis among young people and limited perceived career choices.
It also rubs off on the parents. The Geena Davis Institute found that parents of both sexes viewed men as “more creative,” were six times more likely to see scientists and athletes as men rather than women, and more than eight times more likely to consider engineers as men.
Goldin says Lego no longer labels any of its products “for girls” or “for boys”. On lego.com, consumers cannot search for products by gender. Instead, the website offers themes that it calls “passion points”.
“We test everything on boys and girls, and include more female models,” Goldin explains. The recent Lego Con featured female designers talking about the work they’ve done, while Lego’s Rebuild the World campaign focuses on girls.
“Our job now is to encourage boys and girls who want to play with sets that were traditionally considered ‘not for them’,” Goldin adds. – Guardian
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