Campaign success: Hamleys toyshop scraps sexist signs

Hamleys signage: BEFORE campaign (LEFT) and AFTER campaign (RIGHT)

In response to the campaign against categorisation of toys by gender and sexist stereotypes, Hamleys has changed its signage.

The FT has covered the story here.

Last week, I spoke to Hamleys's PR office and sent a letter to the Chief Executive, Gudjon Reynisson. I also called up the PR office at Landsbanki, the nationalised Icelandic bank that controls Hamleys. (Iceland is a very progressive country in terms of providing equal gender rights and opportunities; they rightly took notice.)

The letter was along the lines of a blog I wrote in October, in which I outlined my concern that the layout of the toyshop restricts children’s and parents’ choices and contributes to our society's inequality.

The blog was also published on the leading political website Liberal Conspiracy. As a result of the blogs, there were many comments, tweets and discussions. This topic resonated with many people - parents, feminists, journalists, scientists. There has also been interest from Icelandic journalists and feminists, who have been adding to the pressure of this campaign.

This is a summary of what I said in the letter to Hamleys:

• requested they categorise toys by interest (type of toy), not by gender
• pointed out that on the girls’ floor, the toys are focused on domestic, caring and beauty activities and the boys’ floor is geared to action and war, with little scope for creativity (arts and crafts)
• said that gender stereotypes in toys are highly influential and pervasive, and influence children’s and parents’ choices, aspirations and expectations. These different toys also promote the development of certain skills and encourage boys and girls to pursue activities that are consistent with the gender stereotypes we see in our society generally (women in passive, caring and homemaking roles; men in active, leading and aggressive roles).
• told them about a group of schoolchildren Sweden in 2008 who wrote to Toys ‘R’ Us and persuaded it to change, The Early Learning Centre in the UK which similarly responded to such complaints from Pinkstinks in 2009 and WH Smiths, which agreed to abandon its use of the term ‘women’s fiction’.

The campaign worked! Thank you all for your support (moral and otherwise) and encouragement. Many people have tweeted, retweeted and suggested ideas and strategies.

Congratulations everyone!

We still have work to do on the nature of the toys themselves, and the gender stereotyping of their marketing (see doll babies marketed at girls on left) - but we have come to a milestone. Great work!