Children?s Toy Collections in Sweden?A Less Gender-Typed Country?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze differences between girls' and boys' toy collections in a country that strongly emphasizes gender equality (Sweden). The study was based on the assumptions that toy collections reflect social values in the society where they are found and that Sweden has less gendered values than do many other countries. The toy collections of 152 3-and 5-year old Swedish children were inventoried, and the results were analyzed and discussed in relation to previous research on children's toy collections and toy preferences in North America and Western Europe. The Swedish toy collections were found to be gender-typed in ways similar to those reported in previous research in other countries.

The value of toys: 6–8-year-old children's toy preferences and the functional analysis of popular toys

“…The realistic label is given to toys which replicate real life archetypes (Hughes, 1999;Kline, 1999;Nelson, 2005). This feature is dominant when the whole toy is a replica of the target and moderate when a representational element, usually a picture, is added to an otherwise non-representational toy.…”

“…Contemporary toys in most Western contexts are predominantly understood as objects that have been manufactured and purchased for children to play with (Gougoulis, 2003, 10;Nelson, 2005). Besides their value as playthings, commercial toys are said to have various cultural values.…”

“…The background variable examined is usually the gender of informants (Cherney & Dempsey, 2010). Children's levels of reading (Billie, 1984), the social values of surrounding society (Nelson, 2005), the degree and frequency of their exposure to toy commercials (Bujitzen & Walkenburg, 2000;Pine & Nash, 2002), and brand awareness (O'Cass & Clarke, 2002) have also been the main subject or co-subject in past studies, though -with the exception of Billie's (1984) study -gender related analysis has played a marked role in all of the works mentioned. According to Nelson (2005) there are is a body of literature indicating that girls and boys tend to prefer and choose toys that are traditionally feminine or masculine.…”

“…The problem with these umbrella terms is that here are thousands and thousands of different puzzles, pens and books and although some of them surely can be labeled neutral there are roughly an equal number that cannot. To avoid this problem and an overwhelming number of different umbrella classes (see Nelson 2005) we will next present the idea of the functional manipulation potential of toys: a taxonomic model which is based on their built-in purposes.…”

Children’s preferences for gender-typed objects and colours: a commentary from gender research in Spain

“…Children's gender-typed preferences for toys grow larger with development (Golombok & Hines, 2002); studies conducted in the US (Goldberg, Kashy & Smith, 2012), Sweden (Nelson, 2005) or the UK (Dunn & Hughes, 2001) have reported consistent patterns, indicating that girls prefer dolls, stuffed animals and educational toys, whereas boys prefer vehicles, action figures, tool sets or construction toys. In addition to differences in preferences, boys and girls show a stronger bias for toys stereotyped as own-gender than for cross-gender-typed or gender-neutral toys (Cherney, KellyVance, Gill, Ruane & Ryalls, 2003).…”