We Americans tend to think little about gender role stereotypes and its place in our society, but it is still an important topic to discuss. Parents, following society's cues, purchase toys for their children that encourage stereotypes that males are oriented towards action and fighting and females focus on friendship and raising children. While this may be helpful in some cases, there may also be repercussions for specific individuals who don't fit those stereotypes and therefore may feel pressured to be something other than who they really are. To investigate one of the starting points of this phenomenon, I visited my local Kennesaw Toys-RU and found some expected and even surprising results: Section A: As for toys that had to do with adult roles, it It was surprising to note that the section of the store with kitchen and shopping toys had a very mixed gender approach when it came to photos of boys and girls on the products. However, with hardware and power tool toys, science toys, and soldier-oriented toys, there was an obvious marketing attempt towards boys, as the images on those products were almost exclusively of boys playing with those toys . Section B: While there were clear separations in the male and female sections, it seemed that for gender neutral toys the placement was very significant. For example, a hallway of plastic blocks or bicycle helmets would be separated down the middle with girls' ones on one side and boys' on the other. Section C: The most gender-neutral toys tended to be for infants and included products such as musical instrument toys. Preschoolers' toys were already in line with those of older kids, including products like vehicles and superheroes, even though there was no... half of the paper... science and war. Although biological differences (for example, greater verbal ability in women and greater visuospatial ability in men) determine many adult roles, societal stereotypes should not confine individual boys and girls to the idea that they should become only what they they are reinforced. become.Works citedCampenni, C. (1999). Gender stereotypes of children's toys: A comparison of parents and non-parents. Sex Roles, 40(1/2), 121-138.Martin, C. L., Ruble, D. N., & Szkrybalo, J. (2002). Cognitive theories of early gender development. Psychological Bulletin, 128(6), 903. ChicagoSerbin, L. A., Poulin-Dubois, D., Colburne, K. A., Sen, M. G., & Eichstedt, J. A. (2001). Gender stereotypes in infancy: Visual preferences and knowledge of gender-stereotypic toys in the second year. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(1), 7-15.