Kids market intelligence specialist reveals latest study on children’s views and perception on gender.
Following on from International Women’s Day yesterday (Sunday March 8), Kids Insights has revealed its latest study on children’s views and perception on gender.
With continuing wider societal trends of inclusivity and gender equality, the market research specialist says there is a drive among brands to make toys follow suit and be more inclusive of gender, race and diversity.
While developments have occurred at a brand and product level, they are yet to filter through and be reflected in the toy’s children choose to play with day to day.
When Kids Insights looked at the favourite toys of 3-5s, only three toys from the top ten list for boys also feature on the top ten list for girls. Currently, there are only a few toys to bridge the gender gap between preschool age fans within the top ten, illustrating the challenges of creating toys that appeal to both genders equally.
The report also demonstrates major changes in children’s interests and hobbies that shaping traditional expectations of masculinity and femininity. According to Kids Insights data, the number of girls who are playing football has increased by 12% since Q1 2018. Tween girls are the most likely to play football at 22%.
The number of young ladies who game is also on the rise. From Q2 2019 to Q4 2019 there was a 9% increase in teenage girl gamers. As well as this, while girls are more likely to own tablets and smartphones than a console, since Q4 2018 there has been a 14% increase in girls gaming on their tablet and 10% increase in girls gaming on their smartphones.
Although the number of girl gamers is expanding, there are still only a small number of female characters represented in games.
“Our methodology enables us to track the entire inter-connected kids’ ecosystem, examining areas such as how kids spend their time, what they enjoy doing and what they are currently consuming,” said Jenny Kieras, coo of Kids Insights (pictured). “We can see how this generation of children is like no others; inspired and motivated to make positive changes by sharing pure empathy and respect.
“We believe that companies should invest in product development programmes to make valuable and responsible contributions to inclusivity and gender equality in kids’ space that also make business sense.”
The latest study is based on Kids Insights’ quarterly on-track reports, with a depth and breadth of data obtained through surveying over 5,000 British children between October and December 2019, though it also utilises data collected since May 2017.
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