from Voice Of Europe:

Top officials in the Dutch and French government are fighting to make children’s toys ‘gender-neutral’. 

In the Netherlands, leftist Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven of the D66 party has stated that she wants toy manufacturers to phase out ‘gender-stereotyped’ toys. Last year, the Education Minister made a similar plea in a TED talk.

Similarly, in France, the Secretary for Economic Affairs Agnès Pannier-Runacher signed an agreement with major toy manufacturers, distributors, and stores to combat so-called ‘gender stereotypes’, SCEPTR reports.

“We want to work on the development of new toys, but also on the way it is represented in advertisements and the way it is sold,” says Pannier-Runacher.

For Pannier-Runacher, ‘gender-stereotyped’ toys are to blame since there are fewer female scientists. With the introduction of the ‘Charter for a mixed representation of toys’, France’s entire sector of toy manufacturers, distributors and stores would work to ‘improve’ the ‘gender neutrality’ of toys. 

Beginning next year, French toy stores will phase out individual boy and girl toy classifications, advertising agencies will no longer be allowed to put out per gender in brochures, and employees working in toy stores will no longer be allowed to ask the parents if the product is for a boy or a girl.

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