Gender Labelling - Children's Toys.

So I recently saw this picture on my twitterfeed. Courtesy of LetToysbeToys. This example in particular is pretty terrible. When there are toys such as trucks and cars I sometimes have associated those as mainly toys for boys, I don't think this is right by the way. But the 'Chemistry Set' being labelled as for boys seems to hit me harder for some reason. It is just perpecuating the old-fashioned stereotypes of what boys and girls are supposed to enjoy playing with, and more seriously what they should want to do at school and later on as a career.

Now, I'm sure many would say that these labels will not stop children playing with what they want, and I agree. I played with legos, cars, my older brother's chemistry set, a toy microscope and many other toys that some would associate with boys. I also loved to play with dolls, kitchen sets, barbies, etc.
But then surely, if a child can play with anything they want. What is the purpose of gender labelling anyway?

From reading my twitter, having many complained to Tesco, this was their initial reply, which I'm sure many will see as very strange, "based on research":

@lettoysbetoys Toy signage is currently based on research and how our customers tell us they like to shop in our stores
— Tesco Customer Care (@UKTesco) May 4, 2013

 I'm happy that action is being taken, but there are so many cases of this.
 In some ways, I don't think these labels effect what children play with. I hope that parents will see these labels and not limit what their child can play with, and I believe that most parents are better than this. I also hope a child will not stop themselves playing with something because it is deemed 'a boy's toy' or 'girly'. Personally I feel these labels send a very bad message generally in our society.

The biggest problem I have is that it is the toy companies that are actually doing the labelling. Someone purposely labelled that 'Chemistry Set' for boys. What does that say about people's opinion of what girls and boys should do? Surely what feminism has been campaigning for all these years is to get rid of these ideas of what women should and shouldn't do! This one example is not helping the idea that girls can be a scientist if they want to be, and it is showing. Women are still under-represented in jobs related to Science, Maths, Engineering positions - (Guardian Article).

This example is just one way that gender labelling is to continue having a detrimental effect on the progress towards gender equality. Toys don't need to be for a certain gender, there is literally no need. If all labels like this could be removed, then maybe it would help reduce other damaging stereotypes of boys and girls. The ideas that boys need to be tough while girls should be sensitive and gentle. All of these things continue to limit what girls and boys should do!

Just some of my thoughts.
Thanks for reading!

Happy International Women Day!

Today, I have found my twitter feed filled with tweets about International Women's Day, or #IWD. Now this is partly due to the fact that I follow a lot of people and organisations whose aim is to address the issue of Women's equality  but I have also seen in other places, and it is great to see this day being recognised. Just look at the great Google homepage !
  To be honest, reading and seeing so much about these issues has made me even more motivated and a little overwhelmed. It makes me want to be as informed as I can be about the situation women are in, and not just for women in the UK. It makes it clear in my mind that I can't just sit back and do nothing. I honestly want to be part of the change that I know is essential.
A few things that have read which I think are interesting: 

• The world's female politicians should inspire British women- (Guardian's Article).
•  Live chat with a great panel on "Where have all the women gone"  - Link

22.5% of Women in UK Government. Is that good enough?

The issue of female political representation is something of particular interest to me. At the start of the Spring term I created a create a 3000 word assignment, essential a dissertation plan. I struggled for a while at what I wanted to write about, all I knew is that I wanted it to relate to women in politics. I finally decided to write about levels of political representation. In the end, I am pleased with this topic. Firstly it has a  wide range of work already written on it, which makes it challenging but also gives you more to work with. Secondly the topic is still debated, and the issue is still has relevance today. The question is why in the modern day, do highly developed countries, such as the UK have such low levels of women in government. I don't have an answer yet, but I my approach to this topic is hopefully to research enough to understand why there is such variation across Europe and ways in which these efforts are being made to improve this, both at National and EU levels. 
Many people will agree with me that once you focus on something, there is often not much else you want to read or talk about. But in always being passionate about women's equality as well as my now focused research topic, I became very interested in a UK based campaign which as you will tell, is identical to what I want to change and learn more about.

"Counting Women In" - A campaign fighting for 50/50 gender representation.  Connected to the work of Fawcett society, a gender equality thinktank. 
Key things to take from this campaign:

• Sex and Power 2013 Report
• Sign the petition to make David Cameron keep his promise.
• Follow their Twitter
• #CountingWomenIn

Here are the simple facts. There are only 22.5% of women in parliament in the UK. Compare this with Sweden which has 44.7% of women in Parliament. Out of 190 countries, we are 57th! (Data taken from this website.)

I hope that once I have begun to fully research this topic, I will then be able to have my own opinion on the matter. There is no question that I believe more women need to be Parliament, while over half our population are women, it makes no sense that our government does not represent our population and therefore its interests. And without sounding like a radical feminist, I don't believe it is right that we have men dominating the political system. 
Whether we should implement positive discrimination, in the sense that we push for increased levels of women through the use of quotas is debatable. I hope that levels can increase because women are actively taking political roles and that the ability to gain positions in government are equally available.