In 2012, a thread was opened on the Mumsnet online forum which said: "If you think that girls and boys should feel free to play with whatever toys that interest them most, and that they shouldn't walk into a toy store and feel pressurised to conform into archaic gender roles and stifling stereotypes, please join in the discussion!
Regardless of where I was or the size of the company, it was always a predominantly male, or indeed all-male, environment, but it is only when I walk into a toy shop that I feel I am really experiencing gender segregation.
Of course, that trike cannot be handed over to a brother or nephew, ensuring further sales of blue bikes with Action Man handlebars.
It has got to the point where it is difficult to buy toys for girls that are not pink, princess-primed and/or fairy-infused.”[5]Onwurah later told Kira Cochrane, a reporter for UK Newspaper The Guardian, that she believes the limiting of children by gender stereotypes is a serious economic issue, with the proportion of female students on engineering degree courses having fallen from 12% to 8% in the thirty years since she had started studying for one herself.
Retailer Hobbycraft came top of the list of stores promoting and selling toys without relying on gender stereotypes and was named the ’best of the high street’ by the campaign; Toymaster and Fenwick came second and third respectively.
Fenwick was also, along with Debenhams and TK Maxx, named as the most improved store; all three had decided to stop using ’girls’ and ’boys’ signage.
Everything is much easier to find and children are no longer being sent the message that science and adventure are only for boys, crafts and nurturing play only for girls”.
[8]In November 2014, supermarket chain Tesco removed "gift for a boy" signage from superhero alarm clocks in its shops after a shopper’s photo of her "superhero-loving" daughter next to the sign was posted on Twitter and retweeted more than 10,000 times.
She had asked her mother to apply the filter as she had previously been bullied at school because she liked dinosaurs and had worn Spider-Man sandals.
Following a complaint, Toys R Us’ managing director phoned the mother to discuss the issue and to offer vouchers as compensation for the upset caused by the incident.
The campaign is led by writer and activist Francesca Cambridge Mallen, a former indie business owner[17] who in 2013 started making childrenswear from home after becoming concerned at the lack of STEM themed clothing marketed to girls.
Inspired by Craftivist Sarah Corbett, Mallen taught herself to make simple space themed dresses,[18] dinosaur skirts and unicorn trousers, selling under the name Sewing Circus until she sold the business in 2018.
In 2015 the campaign challenged[19] a range of science themed t-shirts produced in collaboration between Marks and Spencer and the Natural History Museum in London, which were marketed to boys only.
Some declared the move an act of political correctness, including Piers Morgan who tweeted "Britain has officially gone bonkers"[22] over a photograph of the newspaper article.
The move was heavily praised by parents and commentators,[23] outweighing more conservative views such as Tory Councillor Luke Stubbs, who threatened to burn his John Lewis Loyalty Card in protest.
[24] Writing for the New Statesman, Victoria Smith poked fun at such attitudes stating that perhaps a content warning was needed "whenever there's a risk they might come into contact with a toddler of ambiguous gender presentation?