Parents urged to ‘buy a boy a Barbie’ as part of No Gender December

AUSTRALIAN parents are being urged to “buy a boy a Barbie” this Christmas and adopt No Gender December.

AUSTRALIAN parents are being urged to “buy a boy a Barbie” this Christmas and adopt No Gender December.

The Good Education Group — a leading educational publisher — is the latest organisation to join the movement against gender-stereotyped toys and presents.

Chief executive officer Chris Lester said the grassroots campaign to fight gender division was designed to “Encourage parents to try and de-gender their presents - the best present for your daughter this Christmas may not necessarily be a nerf gun, but rather a “Jewelbot,” a “Roominate set” or “Goldieblox”.”

“According to those behind the No Gender December campaign, the movement correlates with the perception that STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) are fields dominated by men and avoided by women, and just as toy stores typically separate ‘girls’ from ‘boys’ toys, workplaces tend to be sharply divided between ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ jobs.”

The Good Education Group is a well-known educational publisher whose products include The Good Schools Guide, The Good Universities Guide and The Good Careers Guide.

“There’s an exciting new wave of gender-neutral toys designed to encourage more girls to develop fundamental skills in maths and science beyond stereotypes. It might not be a quick fix but getting behind No Gender December is a good start to redressing this imbalance” Mr Lester said.

The “buy a boy a Barbie” idea stems from No Gender December.

“Just as toyshops typically separate girl’s from boy’s toys, workplaces in the Western World are sharply divided between pink and blue jobs.

“According to the taxman, women make up over 70 per cent of the education and training sector, and almost 80 per cent of all health and social workers,” Mr Lester said.

“But they represent less than 12 per cent of the mining and construction industries, under a quarter of the manufacturing and transport sectors, and a tiny fraction of folks in IT”.

The No Gender December campaign started in 2014 by advocacy group Play Unlimited, and has since been supported by Greens Senator Larissa Waters and a range of social and educational experts.

The concept of No Gender December was criticised by former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who said he wanted “boys to be boys and girls to be girls”.

“I certainly don’t believe in that kind of political correctness,” he said.

“Above all else, let parents do what they think is in the best interests of their children”.

In Australia Target stores do not categorise toys by gender, and target.com.au segregates toys by age group and brand. At Big W online toys are categorised by price and category, not gender. The same is true at Kmart.com.au, although a search for “boys’ toys” brings up red and blue bikes, a boy doll, army construction kits and Star Wars Lego. A search for “girls’ toys” brings up pink bikes, shopping and runway construction kits, a baby doll and girls’ action figures.