subscribe: Posts | Comments

Happy toy campaigners

0 comments

let toys be toys claim victories with toyshop displays, gender issuesSurvey results: high street shops are less sexist this Christmas after Let Toys Be Toys campaign.

A survey by campaign group Let Toys Be Toys shows ’girls’ and ’boys’ signs are falling out of favour in toy stores.

Throughout November Let Toys Be Toys supporters across the UK and Ireland carried out a survey designed to gauge the impact of the toys  and gender campaign.

According to the survey the proportion of shops using ’girls’ and ’boys’ signs has reduced by 60 per cent compared with last Christmas when the campaign began, dropping from half of all shops a year ago to just a fifth today.

Hobbycraft topped the list of stores marketing toys without relying on gender stereotypes and was named the ’best of the high street’ by the  campaign, with second and third place going to Toymaster and Fenwick.

Fenwick, Debenhams and TK Maxx were named as the  most improved stores, all having recently decided to stop using girls  and boys signs.

Kerry Brennan, one of the Let Toys Be Toys campaign founders, said, ”While there’s still a long way to go to address sexism in the toy industry, the changes in major retail chains like Debenhams are just brilliant to see. They’ve replaced pink and blue ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ signs with new colourful signs that say ‘Vehicles’, ‘Superheroes’, ‘Soft Toys’, and ‘TV Characters’, among others. Everything is much easier to find and children are no longer being sent the message that science and adventure are only for boys, crafts and nurturing play only for girls.

“Through the grass roots efforts of a small group of dedicated volunteers, the support of over ten thousand parents and educators, and the willingness of many retailers to listen to the concerns of their customers, a year after the campaign began we can clearly see the difference that consumer voices are making on this issue.”

The worst shop in the survey was Morrisons; in general supermarkets  were shown to favour stereotyping the most, while independent toy stores were the least likely to use gender stereotypes.

Of the fourteen major retailers contacted by the Let Toys Be Toys campaign in 2013 and asked to remove ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ signage from shop floors or own-brand toy packaging, seven have already done so (Hobbycraft, Boots, TK Maxx, The Entertainer, Debenhams, Fenwick, Next) and five are in the process of doing so (Toys R Us, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons).

The survey results are not all good news for the campaign however. Just over 70 per cent of  stores still used some kind of gender cues, with 40 per cent of stores using  gender to sell the majority of their toys.

“We still have a way to go,” said Rebecca Brueton, Let Toys Be Toys campaigner.

“We made getting rid of the signs our priority this year and the survey shows it’s working.

“Even so, you can still find plenty of shops promoting outdated  and limiting ideas, giving children the message that science is only for  boys and creativity for girls for example.

“This is the twenty-first century. We wouldn’t accept such outdated thinking for adults. Why do we tolerate it for our children?”

The full Let Toys Be Toys Survey Report and Review of 2013 is available here.

To sign the petition asking retailers in the UK and Ireland to remove gender labels and organise toys by genre not gender, click here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *