International Women’s Day may now have to wait another year before trending on media platforms across the globe once again, but that doesn’t mean the conversation has to stop there. To help fuel the momentum around the topic, Kids Insights – the kids market intelligence specialist -has presented its latest study on children’s views and perception on gender.
The study is based on its 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.
With continuing wider societal trends of inclusivity and gender equality, 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 three to five year olds, only three toys from the top 10 list for boys also feature on the top 10 list for girls.
Currently, there are only a few toys to bridge the gender gap between pre-school age fans within the top 10, 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 per cent since Q1 2018. Tween girls are the most likely to play football at 22 per cent.
The number of young ladies who game is also on the rise. From Q2 2019 to Q4 2019 there was a 9 per cent 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 per cent increase in girls gaming on their tablet and 10 per cent 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.
Jenny Kieras, COO Kids Insights, commented: “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.
“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.”
Kids Insights, part of The Insights People, is the global leader in kids’ market intelligence. The company currently surveys more than 2,500 children every week, across 4 continents and 8 countries, or more than 125,000 children a year, and has gained a reputation as the most comprehensive and dynamic market intelligence specialist in kids, tweens and teens; and whose market intelligence is used by companies such as the BBC, Disney, Pokémon, SEGA, Turner and Warner Bros.
