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| Des poupées dans un magasin parisien, le 30 novembre 2011 (AFP Photo/ PIERRE VERDY) |
Paris (AFP) - French toymakers signed a pact on Tuesday, three months before Christmas, to rid games and toys of gender stereotypes the government blames for keeping women out of maths and science careers.
The charter
for a "balanced representation (of genders) in toys" was signed by
the government, the FJP toy industry federation and the association of toy
manufacturers.
Explaining
the initiative, junior economy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said many toys
project an "insidious" message that discourages girls from pursuing
careers as engineers or computer coders -- fields perceived as more appropriate
for their male counterparts.
"There
are toys for girls that are generally very pink and generally very focused on
domestic life, whereas toys for boys are generally themed around construction,
space travel, and science and technology," she told broadcaster RTL.
This
message that jobs are gender-specific is hammered home from a young age, with
the result that "very few women" enter science and technology,
Pannier-Runacher lamented.
"If
you go to a shop to buy a toy for your young niece or nephew, the first
question is: 'Is it for a girl or a boy?' and not: 'Do they like to play
outside? Do they like to play construction games? Do they like to play at
taking care of a baby?'," she said.
This has
the effect that girls, even though they tend to perform better than boys at
maths and physics at school, are underrepresented in the sector as adults.
"Today,
ten percent of coders are women, which means that 90 percent of coders are men
designing the algorithms of tomorrow," said Pannier-Runacher.
At France's
national research centre, the CNRS, women represented just 38 percent of
researchers in 2017, and less than a third of research managers. Women are more
than half the French population.
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Toys have a
"fundamental" role in helping girls find their calling, says Florence
Barnier, who heads the Elles Bougent (They Move), which seeks to boost the
number of girls in the sciences (AFP Photo/Alastair Pike)
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Apart from
changes in toy design, the charter also envisages that manufacturers will adapt
the way their products are advertised.
And there
will be retraining for toyshop attendants, so they can learn that "what is
important is the potential of the child and what they love", that "a
baby in the arms of a small boy or a Meccano (building set) in the arms of a
girl is also good," said Pannier-Runacher.
Girls can
be knights
"A
little girl may not wish to be a princess. She might want to be a knight... and
go to combat rather than being confined to a castle hosting her friends for
tea," the junior minister added.
Pannier-Runacher
tweeted a picture of the new charter along with "you can be anything"
Barbie dolls dressed as an astronaut and a robotics engineer.
Last year,
Barbie-maker Mattel announced a campaign to teach young girls not to buy into
sexist stereotypes.
It has
given the decades-old doll known for her original impossible physique a number
of metamorphoses in recent years, including as an engineer, a scientist and a
mathematician.
The charter
signed at the economy ministry does not envision sanctions for not complying,
Pannier-Runacher said, but companies stand to receive a reputational boost if
they do.
The FJP
federation said in a statement it was committed to taking
"measurable" steps towards boosting gender neutrality in toys.
Toys play a
"fundamental" role in helping girls find their calling, added
Florence Barnier, who heads the Elles Bougent (They Move) movement which seeks
to boost the number of girls in the sciences.
"If we
do not give science-themed toys to young girls, they will not be able to see
themselves in these jobs," she said.
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