As I reported in the Morning News: A new UK study finds that
children's toys are more gendered now than ever before (so much for
free to be you and me) and consequently, that girls--whose toys encourage little learning and more docility than boys'--are behind in math and science.
Furthermore,
the study blames parents for this problem, suggesting parents push
their children towards traditionally gendered toys. How did the study
find this? It asked parents for their impressions of what were their
children's favorite toys and parents of boys picked boy-toys and
parents of girls picked girl-toys. Study author Becky Francis of
Roehamptom University believes the parents' choices had more to do with
what they thought their kids should like rather than what they really
did like:
"The very clear message seems to be that boys should
be making things, using their hands and solving problems, and girls
should be caring and nurturing," she says. "It is likely that many of
the boys in the study sleep with a teddy, but this was not noted by
parents as a favourite toy."
Francis has a good point but I
do wonder about the circularity of her reasoning, at least as presented
in the Guardian. How does she know parents failed to report teddies?
Maybe all the boys in the study slept with
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