of creative play such as building confidence, creativity and communication skills are felt by all children and yet we still experience age-old stereotypes that label activities as only being suitable for one specific gender,” the Lego Group’s chief marketing officer Julia Goldin said in a statement. “At the Lego Group we know we have a role to play in putting this right, and this campaign is one of several initiatives we are putting in place to raise awareness of the issue and ensure we make Lego play as inclusive as possible. All children should be able to reach their true creative potential.”  In conjunction with the announcement, Lego released the findings of a global survey it commissioned on gender bias. Conducted by the Geena Davis Institute, the survey asked nearly 7000 parents and kids in China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Russia, the UK and the US, questions such as whether it’s OK for girls to play football and boys to practice ballet. While 82 per cent of girls said it was, only 71 per cent of boys agreed.  Parents from the survey were nearly five times as likely to encourage girls to engage in dance and dress-up activities than boys. Conversely, they were almost four times as likely to encourage boys to engage in program games and sports than girls, and over twice as likely to do so with coding toys.  Parents were also more likely to encourage their sons to play with Lego bricks than their daughters. After completing an implicit bias assessment, 76 per cent said they would recommend Lego to a son versus 24 per cent who would recommend it to a daughter. Blue-and-pink divide Lego isn’t the first retailer to try to downplay gender in its marketing to kids. Many retailers have moved away from gender-based signs in stores, which reinforce the idea that certain products are for boys and others are for girls.   In 2016, British department store John Lewis removed gender-based signs and replaced the labels on its own brand of children’s clothing with tags that read ‘boys and girls’ or ‘girls and boys’. And American big box retailer Target removed gender-based signs in 2015, after a tweet showing a sign for ‘building sets’ and ‘girls’ building sets’ went viral.  A new California law will require retailers with over 500 employees to offer a “reasonable” amount of kids products in a gender-neutral section in stores by 2024, or face fines of $500 per store.  This is a major shift from the status quo, according to Jana Bowden, a consumer psychology expert at Macquarie University Business School.  “Society has been engaged in gender stereotyping for a long time. We barely blink an eye when we ask in-store for girls’ toys and when we are subsequently told to ‘head to the section which has lots of pink and lots of dolls’,” Bowden told Inside Retail. “There’s been a pervasive assumption that consumers buy gendered toys and that there’s a blue and pink divide. This has been reflected and reinforced and internalised in store layout and design. It’s an inculcated traditional perception of consumption, but times are changing.”  Younger consumers not only value inclusiveness more than older shoppers, but they’re also more likely to identify as non-binary or third-gender, according to a 2018 survey by Deloitte.  “Brands which mirror this shift in values, brands which are clear and intentional about the shift, and brands which choose to focus permanently on wider and more inclusive marketing will benefit through currency, reputation and relevance and they will ultimately gain access to new markets,” Bowden said. “They will better reflect modern families’ needs by matching their evolving identities. They will also contribute towards unravelling bias.”   She expects brands and retailers will continue to move away from gender-based marketing in an effort to connect with millennial parents. “Whilst change has been slow to date, the shift will be likely to quicken as the likes of Gen Alpha tear up binary norms and as parental socialisation approaches shift in parallel.”