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Originally Posted by JamesBrown
This is a really interesting thread. I am currently working for Hasbro, one of the two major toy companies. Interestingly Hasbro dominates the Boy market, and Mattel controls the Girl market (almost entirely because of Barbie)
Starting with a couple of interesting facts. The boy market sells as many dolls as the girl market every year, we just call them action figures. However a huge number of robotic/animatronic toys are marketed towards girls, they are just wrapped in fur and made to look like animals.
I have a question for the women who have posted. There is no question that boys are more likely to buy engineering type toys than girls. I mean things like robot sets, Lego sets, etc. Why is this? Is there something in our culture that tells girls that building things is not feminine enough, or is it just marketing and branding? Lego's major branded kits are: Star Wars, Batman, SpongeBob SquarePants, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Spider-Man, Ben 10, Toy Story and Thomas the Tank Engine. Most of which are considered boy brands in the toy industry (Harry Potter and Toy Story are Unisex). This leads me to believe that the lack of attraction to the product is not the product itself but the branding. Girls are less likely to watch Star Wars or Ben 10. Do you think that if Lego branded a kit as My Little Pony or Barbie (Never going to happen since both licenses are owned by competitors), where you could build houses and such for theme play in those brands, girls would be more attracted to it? I know that in one case my cousin (5 year old girl) loves Star Wars and loves the Lego Star Wars sets. I don't think that she is tom-boyish in her toy preferences. I think she simply likes the Star Wars brand and likes Legos because they are essentially Unisex. It is worth noting that young children regardless of gender build with blocks, some how that is lost around school age. I think that the issue is simply branding and marketing of building toys for this age group.
Working on the same idea, since there is little media directed towards girls that prominently features robots do you think it is possible to disguise robots as something that culture pushes towards girls. For example, If a robot kit came with Fur that could be used to cover the creation would that be more appealing to girls? This would allow them to build there own pets, the animatronic pet market is already directed towards girls. This would allow the engineering play to be disguised as making pets, the same way that it is disguised for boy as making star wars characters (or Transformers or any other brand) then at an older age when the role play aspect is not as significant the higher level building kits (Mindstorms, Vex) could be marketed as Unisex.
This turned out longer than expected but I kind of got on a roll.
I also would like to note that to date, the two smartest, and most talented engineers I have met are both women (both chemical engineers).
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As a preschool teacher, I see my four and five year olds playing with all sorts of different toys.
Currently, the girls are playing more with the LEGOS than the boys are...they're building houses and zoos and hotels. When the boys play with the LEGOs they tend to build houses, zoos, and robots and cages and lately jails.
Then the block area is open, I see the boys mostly playing there...it's usually a 4-0 or 3-1 ratio. When there ARE girls playing there, it's usually to build zoos and houses. When it's the boys, they build pirate ships, jails and zoos.
I have a set of Polly Pocket toys (about as close to Barbies as I'll allow in my classroom) and surprisingly it's been played with pretty equally the past two weeks by both the boys and the girls.
I also have a spare parts bin...made up of lots of FIRST Robotics leftovers: aluminum pieces, large bolts, chains, etc...both the boys AND the girls will play with these pretty equally, though the boys are more likely to create a rock band out of it, and the girls are more likely to set them up to create houses, zoos, etc...
So, from what I can see, it doesn't really matter what the toy is: the girls are going to play a more organized game with them (USUALLY)...for example: they'll set the house up and then pretend to be family members and play for an hour that way. The boys tend to be more hands on with their play (USUALLY): setting up a block somethingorother and then coming to tell me about it and show it off, then crash it all down to build something else.
When they play together, (which I encourage, but don't enforce) they tend to have a better combination of the play: the girls build different things than just houses and zoos, but the boys go along with their playing house and imaginary games for a bit. And then, what usually happens is the boys get bored, knock the house down, and the girls cry.
Now...all this happens without me ever encouraging them to play with one thing over another, or to play with specific people over other people. It just seems to be natural. My classroom is designed specifically to combat gender-sterotypes...and yet, they happen anyway. It could be that it's coming from home. It could be that boys and girls are different, and that's just how it is.
If I was in the toy company and wanted to reach as large a population as I could, I'd go with producing zoo animal stuff. It seems to be pretty neutral.