Examining Gender Bias in Children's Merchandise - Research Paper Example

Examining Gender Bias in Children’s Merchandise Genetically boys and girls are almost the same, there is only one difference, girls have a second X chromosome, where boys have a Y chromosome. However, there are drastic differences in the merchandise and socialization that boys and girls experience. To do this I visited several popular stores to examine merchandise aimed for children. I visited Sears, Target, The Children’s Place, J.C. Penney, and Wal-Mart. I examined categories like clothing, greeting cards, toys, gift wrap, bath, bedding, computer games, books, music, and juvenile party. I looked for variations in colors, messages being sent, numbers of products, images, and whether the manufacturer designed the product for a girl, boy, or either. I took a notepad with me and recorded colors, key messages on products, themes, etc. Most of the percentages and fractions recorded are approximate. The number of products in some of the areas I recorded made it impractical to count every individual item. Some of the stores did not have the same categories as the others, and some had a few more categories that I added because I saw an opportunity to gather more data. All of the stores I visited except for Wal-Mart, were on Saturday, May 1 at around 2:15 pm. Since Sears, J.C. Penney and The Children’s Place were on the same mall I went directly from store to store. I left for Target at around 4:15 pm and spent about an hour in that store. The next day I went to Walmart, I spent about two hours from about 12:30 pm to about 2:30 pm. Data Collection Sears The first store I went to was Sears, this store was set up oddly, there were some sections repeated on the second floor that I had already been through on the first floor. I first went to the curtains where I found 10 juvenile curtains. Nine of these curtains were aimed for girls, their major colors were pinks and purples and some had a princess theme. The sole curtain for boys was mostly blue with a theme featuring the movie “Cars.” Next I went to the bedding department; I found eight styles of bedding sets five of which were for girls. They had the following themes: Hannah Montana, Disney, and flowers. Also of note, the juvenile bedding on display was for girls and had a Disney princess and was pink and purple. The boy bedding had the major colors of blue and red. The themes for bedding for boys were sports (i.e. soccer, baseball, basketball, etc.), cars and trucks, and the “Cars” movie. In the infants’ clothing department I found 10 racks for boys, 13 racks for girls, and two neutral racks. Some of the images I found for infant boys were trucks and sports. I found bunnies, ladybugs, strawberries, pigs, and the word “princess” on the infant girls’ clothing. For infant gear I found that there was a greater amount of gender neutral strollers than gendered strollers, there were 11 neutrals, three boy themed strollers, and one girl stroller. I think that this is due to a desire by parents to reuse more expensive items on subsequent children. I did visit the section where they sell children’s bikes. I noticed that the boys’ bikes were in black and red, and the girls’ bikes were pink and purple. There were three of each, and no neutrally colored bikes. Separate from the rest of the children’s departments was the Land’s End brand of children’s clothing. I found 44 racks/stacks in the boys’ clothing section, with the following colors: orange, black, green, red, light blue, white, tan, gray, yellow, and black. Most of the patterns were plaid, stripes, and solids. In the girls’ section I found 57 racks/stacks of clothing, with the following colors: yellow, green, pink, dark blue, peach, white, light blue, green, gray and pink. While both sections had the same number of colors, I noticed that this department followed the trend of having more options and greater quantities for girls’ clothing than for boys’ clothing. Sears has a large electronics’ department with TVs, DVD players, stereos, etc. Most of this department is geared toward adults, but on an end cap I saw a pink Disney princess display with a TV, alarm clock, DVD player, and CD player. There was nothing comparable for boys or anything neutral and juvenile. When I visited the bath department, I did not see anything discernibly for children. Most of the items that I saw were solid colors. There were also no departments in Sears for music, books, party, greeting cards, or computer games. J.C. Penney The next place I went was J.C. Penney. I first went to the bedding department. There were 8 comforter sets that were exclusively designed for girls. They had flowers, polka dots, and flower prints. There were also some solid pink and purple comforter sets. I found one neutral juvenile comforter. I also found two pink and two purple coverlets. For curtains I found two pink curtains, five blue curtains, and one green curtain; all were designed for girls. The blue and green curtains had bead work that made them feminine looking. There were no boy designs for curtains at J.C. Penney. Next I went to the infants’ department. For clothing I found the following images for girls: they had pink bunnies, purple and blue butterflies, and red and pink flowers. Boys’ clothing had the following images: blue and green dinosaurs, and brown bears. There was one neutral outfit which had yellow ducks. Next I looked at the baby blankets, I found 13 girl blankets, six neutral blankets, and three boy blankets. I looked at the crib sets and found one for boys with a sports theme; two for girls that had the little mermaid on one, and one solid pink set. There was also two neutral crib sets a brown one, and a green one. In infant shoes I saw one rack that had one type of white, neutral shoes; five types of pink, white, and black girl shoes; and two types of blue, tan, and white boy shoes. The toddler underwear section was a little more even in ratio, there were seven types of girl underwear (some had the same characters with slightly different styles) with the following themes: Dora the Explorer, Minnie Mouse, Tinkerbell and Disney princesses. The toddler boys’ underwear had the following themes: Mickey Mouse, Spiderman, Trains, Toy Story and superheroes. In the regular children’s clothing departments the first thing I was struck by was the size disparity. The girls’ section was approximately 50 percent larger than the boys’ section. I also noticed that some of the girls’ sports themed clothes were mixed in the boys’ department. Themes for boys’ clothing at J.C. Penney included the following: trucks and heavy machinery, superheroes, sports, teddy bears, sharks, legos, trains, dinosaurs, video games, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Avatar, guitars, and Scooby Doo. The main colors for boys’ clothing were: yellow, green, blue, white, red, brown, and orange. The girls’ department, on the other hand, had the following themes: Hannah Montana, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Dora the Explorer, pictures of baby chicks, fairies, Tinkerbell, Disney princesses, butterflies, the Little Mermaid, and the Princess and the Frog. I noticed that the girls’ department had much brighter and more vibrant shades of colors than the boys’ department. The colors included: white, peach, blue, yellow, pink, green, purple, and silver/glitter. The Children’s Place The next place I stopped was The Children’s Place, a store exclusively for children’s merchandise, mainly clothing. The store was split with approximately 50 percent girls’ merchandise and 50 percent boys’ merchandise. I did not see much for gender neutral items. The themes I noticed for boys were sports and music, for girls they were flowers and butterflies. Colors for boys’ clothing were the following: gray, green, blue, brown, red, yellow and white. Girls’ clothing colors included: pink, blue jean, blue, orange, brown, white, black and purple. I was surprised that I did not see much for gender neutral clothing, especially in the infant/toddler section. Target The first area that I visited when I arrived to Target was the infant/toddler department. Included in this department are clothing, strollers, playpens, car seats/booster seats, boucers, highchairs, cribs, and bassinets. There were only 18 racks devoted to boys’ clothing, there were 21 racks devoted to girls’ clothing, and surprisingly 20 racks devoted to what I would consider gender neutral clothing. I did notice that there were some items that appeared to be gender neutral but were gender labeled. An example of such labeling is that there was a rack of blue jean shorts, pants, and overall shorts that could have gone for either sex, but were labeled for boys. I also saw a rack labeled for girls but it had neutral colored shorts and shirts on it. Similar to Sears, I noticed a greater push toward gender neutral items for the larger baby necessities. In the stroller section there were six neutral strollers, while there were only three for boys and two for girls. For bouncers I noticed there were two neutral colored bouncer styles and one option for each a boy and a girl styled bouncer. Highchairs had two of each boy, girl, and neutral themed designs. When I got to the car seat/booster seat section I was surprised to find that there was a drastic difference in the number of car seats/booster seats that were for boys. There were 11 seats for boys, eight neutral seats, and only four seats for girls. I expected these car seats/booster seats to follow the same pattern of having greater quantities in the gender neutral category so they could be used for subsequent children in the same family. Next I went to the sporting goods section. I noticed that of the soccer balls there were four for boys; five for girls, with three different styles of pink; and three neutral balls. For the soccer balls this is the total number of balls, not number of styles. The shin guards for soccer were placed above the balls and there were two types of shin guards for girls exclusively and the rest were neutral. This leads me to believe that soccer is becoming one of the more popular sports for girls. For baseball, there were many different styles of bats, all of them were neutral or for boys except for one pink bat. The mitts had a similar outcome, all of them were neutral except for two designed for girls, one of which was pink. I must note however, that this was labeled for baseball, not for softball. Softball is a similar sport to baseball and is quite often seen as an alternative for girls to baseball. Next I looked at the bicycles, there were some that were on display and fully assembled, and there were some boxed bicycles. Of the display bicycles there were an even number for girls and boys, there weren’t any neutral bikes. The boxed bikes were similar there were six bikes for girls, and five bikes for boys. The toy department had a few different sections of toys. First I looked at the water toys; they were all neutral; but one had a picture of a girl on the packaging. This may or may not influence buyers that there is a gender specific to the toy. Most of the infant toys were neutral with 31 non gender specific toys. There were two toys meant for boys, and eight toys meant for girls. In the main toy aisles there were four rows for each gender. The toys meant for girls had mostly dolls, ponies, and dresses. The toys and packaging meant for girls was predominantly pink and purple. For the boys there were mostly action figures, various types of vehicles, and legos or blocks (which could be considered gender neutral but they were in the boys’ aisle). The colors that most of the toys and packaging in the boys’ aisle had were black, blue and green. The back wall in the toy department had some gender neutral toys and some gender specific toys mixed in. All of the games were gender neutral except for two for girls, Pretty, Pretty Princess, and Dora the Explorer Memory. When I visited the children’s movie section of Target I noticed that most of the movies were gender neutral, and the movies that were not were an even split between boys and girls. The books were next to the movies and I noticed that all of the educational books were gender neutral. The coloring books were about an even split, girl themes included princesses and fairies, boy themes included action heroes and cars. For the regular books there were about 80 percent neutral books, approximately 12 percent girls’ books, and about 8 percent boys’ books. The computer games had some surprising results, approximately 60 percent of the games were meant for girls, and only 40 percent for boys. All of the educational games I saw were neutral. In party supplies, about four feet of the aisle was dedicated to boy designs, eight feet was dedicated to girl designs, and only four feet was dedicated to neutral designs. Gift wrap was an even mix of about 1/3 for girls, 1/3 for boys, and 1/3 for either girls or boys. Plates and cards were an even mix as well. For greeting cards the following images were found: for girls there was a good deal of princesses, fairies, flowers, and unicorns; for boys there were animals, trucks, pirates, and one card had the message “Hey Sport!” on it; on the neutral cards sesame street was the main feature. The bedding department had an aisle devoted to boys’ bedding, which I found to be quite unlike other stores. In that aisle I found the following themes: cars, trucks, space, and sports (i.e. football, baseball, basketball, and soccer). For the bath department everything was gender neutral with ducks, monkeys, and a pirate squid as themes. Wal-Mart The first section of Walmart that I visited was the gift wrap section, most of the gift wrap that I saw was neutral with the exceptions of three types for boys, and four types for girls. Two-thirds of the gift bags were gender neutral and the girls and boys gift bags were split evenly (about 1/6 each). In a separate gift bag section, where there were character themed bags, I saw that there were seven types for girls with flowers, Tweety bird, and The Little Mermaid. For the bags meant for boys I saw six types with transformers, superman, and Toy Story themes. Of the birthday cards approximately 2/3 of them were meant for girls, and 1/3 were meant for boys. There were a few neutral cards scattered throughout, but I noticed that that most of them were meant for very young children (i.e. first birthdays). Of these cards the following themes were present: for boys there were animals, NASCAR, trucks, and transformers; for girls there were princesses, mermaids, animals, icarly, Bratz, hello kitty, butterflies, and my little pony. Next I went to the toy department. I saw some outdoor baby/toddler swings on an end cap. They had two designs, one with two different shades of pink, and one style with blue and red. There were three aisles of toys: one had toys meant for boys with cars, swords, hats, legos, hot wheels, and John Deere tractor equipment. The packaging for this aisle was mostly blue, yellow, green, and red. The next toy aisle was half gender neutral with sand and outdoor toys, and the other half had toys for boys like Matchbox cars. The girl aisle had a great deal of pink and purple packaging there were dolls, doll accessories, my little ponies, my littlest pet shop, and Zhu Zhu pets (toy hamsters) with accessories. The infant toy aisle was similar to other stores with mostly gender neutral toys except for a couple of gender specific toys mixed in with the rest. In the book section, except for the educational books (which were once again neutral), there was mostly books for girls and either sex with only a couple of books meant for only boys. In the bedding department there was slightly more options for girls and only one gender neutral option. I did not find a juvenile bath section in Wal-Mart. In infants’ department there were more girl clothes than boy clothes. There were 10 gender neutral carseats/booster seats, one style for boys, and four styles for girls. Cribs and bassinettes in Wal-Mart were all gender neutral. For bouncers, there was one style for each gender and one non-specific bouncer. Of the toddler clothes there was approximately 2/3 meant for girls and 1/3 meant for boys. The children’s departments were about the same size with similar styles and colors to the other stores. The music section for children was also in the “value” section. There were 42 items, 14 of which were girl-specific, one was boy-specific, and the rest were neutral. For movies, they had approximately 1/8 gender specific to girls, 1/8 to boys, and the rest was neutral. I did not find any computer games. Analysis While I was at Sears one of my first stops was at the curtains. I found it surprising that there were nine different varieties of curtains meant for girls, but only one meant for boys. This leads me to believe that boys don’t find it as important as girls do to have specific curtains. Women oftentimes do the decorating in the home, and this may start at a young age in a girl’s bedroom. “By about two-and-a-half years of age (white, middle-class American) children begin to show knowledge of gender stereotypes, about objects…and activities…” (Fausto-Sterling 131). This means that girls, who see their mothers, or another significant female role model care about home décor, will most likely care about it as well. Boys on the other hand, may even reject it as female behavior. This also goes for toys too, “[r]esearch indicates that there is widespread agreement as to which toys are appropriate for one sex and polluting, dangerous, or inappropriate for the other sex” (Messner 777). Overall, there were more products aimed for girls than for boys. Even areas that used to be more boy-dominated, such as computer games, have become more girl-oriented. This may somewhat be due to a backlash of people finding the games to be lacking for girls, but I believe that manufacturers simply found that girls shop more in the stores that I visited more than boys. In the 1950s there was a resurgence of women spending their time shopping, and I don’t believe that completely left American women. According to Betty Friedan, in The Feminine Mystique, “Many women no longer left their homes, except to shop, chauffeur their children, or attend a social engagement with their husbands,” (2). The girls’ pink, princess-themed TV, DVD, alarm clock and CD sets support this theory. Manufacturers (or store management) must have not thought that a boys’ equivalent to this set would have been as profitable so they only created (or stocked) the girls’ princess-themed electronics. The next logical question would be to ask, why would boys not care as much as girls about shopping? Shopping for clothes and home décor is oftentimes considered a female task, and while girls are encouraged to participate in traditionally boys’ activities; boys are more limited. Many parents respond positively to the idea of children experiencing a greater range of opportunities, emotions, and interests than those narrowly defined by gender stereotypes, with mothers especially likely to do so. However, for sons, this positive response is primarily limited to a few attributes and abilities, namely, domestic skills, nurturance, and empathy. And it is constrained by a clear recognition of normative conceptions of masculinity (Kane 171-172). My findings have shown that children’s merchandise is somewhat more skewed in favor of girls. The literature that I have examined supports the idea that since women tend to shop more, and associate shopping with a feminine task, that merchandise reflects this notion. Works Cited Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “The Problem with Sex/Gender and Nature/Nurture.” Debating Biology: Sociological reflections on health, medicine, and society (2003): 131. Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, W.W. and Company, 2001. Kane, Emily W. “’No Way My Boys are Going to be like That!’: Parents’ Response to Children’s Gender Nonconformity.” Gender and Society 20.2 (2006): 171-172. Messner, Michael A. “Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender.” Gender and Society 14.6 (2000): 777. Appendix Sears-curtains 1-Boy-cars movie-blue 9-Girl-pinks, purples, princess Bedding – comes with corresponding pillows-pinks and purples On display-Girls’ Disney princesses 5 Girls Bedding sets – Hannah Montana, Disney, Flowers 3 Boy- sports (blue), cars, trucks (blue), cars movie (red) Girls Clothing 20 racks, 2 large shelves, 2 sm. Shelves, 2 large rack/shelves Infants’ Clothing Racks B-10, G-13, N-2 Characters: Dora, Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell, Wizards of Waverly Place, Spongebob, Hello Kitty, Jonas Bros., Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, Hannah Montana Images: B-trucks, sports G-bunnies, ladybugs, strawberries, pig, princesses Infant Gear Strollers: B-3, G-1, N-11 *No music, no computer games, no books, no party supplies, no greeting cards, no health/beauty in Sears Bikes B-3 (red, black) G-3 (pink, purple) N-0 Bath – none discernibly for children Upper Level – Land’s End B-44 (orange, blue, green, red, light blue, white, tan, gray, yellow, black) mostly plaid, stripes and solids G-57(yellow, green, dark blue, pink, peach, white, light blue, gray) *noticed a pink girls’ Disney princess themed TV, alarm clock, DVD player, and CD player on display, no boys’ equivalent seen J.C. Penney Bedding G-8 comforters-flowers, polka dots Multi: 1 neutral 1 blue green 2 purple/pink coverlets Curtains G- 2 pink, 5 blue, 1 green B-0 Backpacks G-3 B-4 N-1 Infants’ “Thank heaven for little girls” G-pink bunnies, purple/blue butterflies, green/red/pink flower N-yellow ducks B-blue and green dinosaurs, brown bears Baby blankets: B-1 sports; G-2 little mermaid, pink solid; N-2 brown, green Infant shoes- N-1 type, white; G-5 types, pink, white, black; B-2 types, blue, tan, white Underwear: G-7: Dora, Tinkerbell, princesses, B-8: Mickey, Spiderman, Trains, Toy Story, superheroes Childrens’ *Girls’ section 50% larger than boys’ section *one outfit of girls’ sport-theme mixed with boys’ sports in boys’ department B- trucks and heavy machinery, superheroes, sports, teddy bear, shark, legos, trains, dinosaurs, videogames, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Avatar, guitars, Scooby Doo B-yellow, green, blue, white, red, brown, orange G-white, peach, blue, yellow, pink, green, purple, silver/glitter G-Hannah Montana, Mickey and Minnie, Dora, Chicks (i.e. baby chickens), fairies, Tinkerbell, princesses, butterflies, Little Mermaid, Princess and the Frog *Girls dept. has bright, vibrant colors and pastels *noticed a Cinderella dress section with matching doll dress incl. The Children’s Place G-50%, B-50%, not much for neutral B-gray, green, blue, brown, red, yellow, white (sports, music) G-pink, denim, blue, orange, brown, white, black, purple (flowers, butterflies) Target Infants’/Toddler Racks/tables: B-18, G-20, N-20 *some girl items are mixed in boys’ half *jean shorts, bibs, and pants are neutral but have a picture of little boys above it *1 rack of neutral shorts and shirts are labeled for girls Highchairs: B-2, G-2, N-2 All cribs are neutral, 1 boy bassinette, and 1 neutral bassinette Strollers: B-3, G-2, N-6 Bouncers: G-1, B-1, N-2 Carseats/Booster seats: B-11, G-4, N-8 Pack N Plays: B-1, G-1, N-1 Toys/Sports Soccer balls: B-4, G-5, N-3 *3 different types of pink Shin guards: G-2, N-4, B-0 Bats- all neutral/boy except for one pink Bike Helmets: B-7, G-5 Bikes: G-12, B-11 *All water toys are neutral, but there was one with a picture of a girl on the front packaging Infant toys: B-2, G-8, N-31 Girl Toys- 4 rows, dolls, ponies, dresses, (pink and purple) Boy Toys- 4 rows, action figures, vehicles, legos/blocks, (black, blue, and green) Back wall of toys- all neutral or an even mix of boy and girl toys Games are all neutral except for Dora Memory and Pretty Pretty Princess Movies: neutral/even mix Books All learning books are neutral; coloring books are an even split (G- princesses and fairies, B-action heroes, cars); Regular books: 80% neutral, 12% girl, 8% boy Computer Games Educational-neutral; G-60%, B-40% Party Supplies 4ft-B, 8ft-N, 8ft-G plates are an even mix Gift wrap and cards are equal between G, B, and N Card themes G-princess, fairies, unicorns, flowers; B-Hey Sport!, animals, trucks, pirates; N-sesame street Bedding 1st aisle separate for boys’ bedding: cars, sports (football, baseball, basketball, soccer), trucks, space 60% of bedding is for boys; 40% is for girls Bath All is neutral: ducks, monkeys, pirate squid Walmart Gift Items Gift wrap: mostly neutral; 3 boy, 4 girl Gift bags: 2/3 neutral; 1/6-B (dark blue); 1/6-G (pink flowers) Separate gift bags with licensed characters: 7-G (flowers, Tweety bird, Little Mermaid); 6-B (transformers, Superman, Toy Story) Birthday cards: mostly 2/3 girl, 1/3 boy (there are some neutral cards mixed in they are mostly for very young kids) B-animals, nascar, trucks, transformers; G-princesses, mermaids, animals, icarly, Bratz, hello kitty, butterflies, my little pony Toys Outdoor baby swings: 2 pink, 7 blue and red Boy aisle- cars, swords, hats, legos, hot wheels, John Deere tractor equip., packaging for this aisle is in blue, yellow, red, green Girl aisle-dolls, Barbies, baby dolls, strollers for dolls, littlest pet shop, my little pony, matching Barbie dress for 3 yr. olds and older, Zhu Zhu pets packaging for this aisle is mostly pink and purple ½ of one aisle is neutral with outdoor and sand toys, the other half has boy toys (matchbox cars) Baby toy aisle is similar to previous stores, mostly neutral with a few gender differentiated items Books Educational books are all neutral Most of the story books are neutral or for girls, there are only two books for boys Bedding 1st shelf: 1/3 boy, 2/3 girl; 2nd shelf: ½ boy, ½ girl; 3rd shelf: ½ girl, ½ boy There was one neutral option *No juvenile bath items Infant Clothing G-42; B-28; N-9, there was also a shelf that had one side with girl clothing and the other side with ½ neutral and ½ boy clothing Carseats/booster seats: G-4, B-1, N-10 Cribs and bassinettes are all neutral; there was one for each b, g, n in bouncers Toddler clothes: 2/3 girl, 1/3 boy Children The boys’ section is = in size to girls’ section Music – in value section 42 items, 14 girl, 1 boy, rest neutral Movies – 1/8 girl, 1/8 boy, rest neutral *Did not find the computer games. Read More