Princess clothes, dolls, pink dinners for girls and trucks, science games, superhero costumes for boys... Christmas is approaching, how will toys be presented in shops and catalogs? The 2020 Charter for the Mixed Representation of Toys was signed on 24 September 2020 to combat gender stereotypes from an early age and strengthen girls’ appetite for science. Service-Public.fr explains.
In June 2019, the Ministry of Economy and Finance brought together all stakeholders in the toy sector (manufacturers, distributors, advertisers) and stakeholders (parliamentarians, public authorities including the audiovisual sector, consumer representatives, associations) to take stock of the situation and to reach a number of commitments on 24 September 2019 to promote gender diversity in the creation, distribution and promotion of toys. A year later, they have just signed an improved version of the charter, with new actors and new commitments.
The first step is to continue and develop the actions undertaken:
Production of a practical guide for professionals in the sector, which deals with product design, catalogs, shelving and the organization of merchant sites;
Development of a training module for sellers to advise buyers based on the age of the child or his/her interests, rather than gender.
The 2020 Charter edition was an opportunity to expand the scheme to new actors who have made commitments to combat gender stereotypes and promote the mixed representation of toys:
Early childhood and parenthood workers, to raise awareness and train early childhood professionals on gender and equality issues;
Toy manufacturers, distributors, cooperative trade and online merchants, to develop toys that do not convey stereotypes, promote scientific games with the creation of a label
Science, technology, engineering, math
(STEM), offer neutral or mixed visuals, remove the categorization of girls/boys in catalogs or on their website, train their sales staff;
Associations, to conduct awareness campaigns on social networks and in their magazines, organize training or awareness-raising activities for professionals in their network and families;
The Trademarks Union, to create a special prize for communication campaigns or initiatives by toy brands and distributors to combat stereotypes.
As in 2019, the High Council for Audiovisual (SCA) promises to give particular importance to the issue. Similarly, public actors are committed to raising awareness among their toy and game buyers of the value of giving preference to the purchase of non-gendered products, to work in this direction with professionals in early childhood, national education and extracurricular activities, and to promote action on scientific toys adapted to the ages of children and their skills.
A milestone on the Charter's deployment will be held in March 2021.
FYI
Set up in March 2019 to make proposals to advance the presence of women in industry, the Council for Gender Diversity and Professional Equality in Industry, which works under the Ministry of Economy and Finance and on behalf of the National Council of Industry (CNI), focused its work on three priorities: education, guidance and training, in particular to create more vocations among young women and to combat the prejudices that can divert them from scientific worlds from childhood.
