Toys and games – Gender perspective

Traditionally, girls are encouraged to play with dolls while boys are encouraged to play outside. While this teaches girls to be caregivers from an early age, it prevents girls from developing cognitive, physical and social skills. Boys are given toys such as guns to play with and male caregivers often participate in more aggressive physical activities with boys. While these encourage aggression among boys, physical activity is essential for development of all children. It must be noted that the digital gaming industry is a fast-growing sector which is deeply gender-biased and sexualized in its content. This has the capacity to deepen gender biases among adolescents. Moreover, in many contexts, girls of five years and above are discouraged from playing and encouraged to focus on household responsibilities, therefore stagnating opportunities for learning, growth and social development.

Tips for parents:

• Ensure children of all genders are given equal and adequate time to play and participate in household chores
• Ensure that children of all genders are encouraged to play with gender-neutral toys and games that develop the complete set of social and cognitive skills, for example play with dolls as well as physically active games, games that develop literacy, numeracy, spatial, cognitive, social skills and so on
• Encourage children to play with toys and games traditionally associated with the opposite gender
• Avoid toys and games that deliberately encourage stereotypes, e.g. pink packaging, unicorns, rainbows for girls, etc and ensure that toys and games given to children are inclusive and diverse in their representation
• Prevent children from playing with guns and violent toys, including overtly violent of sexualized digital games; replace violent and aggressive games with constructive physical activities
• Encourage children to translate anger and frustration into problem-solving rather than use of aggression