Girls may like robots, but boys make them

So check out this fascinating little peice of image-based sociological research: Gender, Technology, and Toys R Us.

The author, Lisa Wade, checked out gifts for the geeky boys, vs gifts for the geeky girls using the Toy's R'Us suggestion centre. She points out that in terms of defining interests Toy's R' US gives very similar options for boys and girls ie; arsty, sporty, outdoorsy, techie etc.. But given that, the gift suggestions are very different. The breakdown is essentially this:

So that’s 13 building/engineering games (like Lego and KNEX), 3 ipod accessories, 4 portable DVD players, 2 MP3 players, and a few other things.

What do girls get? Seven ipod accessories, 5 portable DVD players, 4 MP3 players, 3 laptop computers, 3 cameras, and one building/engineering game. One.

I still remember The huge construx collection my brother and I shared as kids. I also remember being pretty darn excited unwrapping those big rectangular boxes full of little tiny pieces at Channukah. We also, and this is just nostalgia, had this set of little pipes that got attached to tiny star shaped joins. It was awesome I forget what it was called though.

It's funny I never realized that my parents were so complicit in helping me become a gender rebel. But all jokes aside, I really think if they hadn't insisted on getting me interesting toys I may not work in technology right now.

Back to the matter at hand, Wade's point is that while, "Toys R Us confirms that girls may like technology, but boys build it." I agree, and look forward to the day that building toys finally get classed as non-gender specific.