Some say genders are innate and can’t be changed by society. Well one incredible toy company is proving them wrong, by showing little girls everywhere that it’s not just boys who get to cast, assemble tool sets, ninjas, and fire trucks.
“It all started when I went to tour our factories in rural China,” ToyWeek CEO Jerry Bertrand told reporters. “I was walking through our assembly lines on floor 2B, and all I saw was little girls hunched over kitchen toys, and little boys making the tool sets. I asked myself, what kind of message is this sending them about their futures? About what they can and deserve to be when they grow up?”
“And also, now, while they are still children,” Bertrand added.
From that moment on, ToyWeek’s approach to gender norms got a little more 21st Century.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’re doing here” Bertrand assured reporters. “We’ve got boys putting together doll houses, and girls putting together army toys,” Bertrand explained.
“It’s actually really cute unless one of the boys gets his hand stuck painting the inside of a tea set.”
Kids, 1. Patriarchy, 0.
But the best part? Turns out that challenging gender roles isn’t just good for kids expectations of themselves. It can be (gasp!)…good for business!
“I always love telling my competitors, newsflash, girls are just as good at assembling squirt guns as boys. Sometimes even better, since their fingers are smaller and they can really get in there with the screwdriver for quality control. We want these kids to know that we see them, not simply as boys and girls, but as invaluable yet easily-replaceable workers.”
Bertrand added, “There’s no room for discrimination against anyone here at ToyWeek, with the exception of union organizers.”
And that’s not the only way these progressive entrepreneurs are striking a blow for equality. In addition to their gender-neutral grey uniforms, the boy and girl factory workers also earn the SAME AMOUNT – namely less than a dollar a day! See, big business, pay equity is not! That! Hard!
So this holiday season why not challenge yourself to give the gift of freedom from gendered expectations–to the special young ones in your life, and to a child in a factory far away!
