Cars are for boys? Really?

This morning Dan and Pat were selling that car and track system. Dan asked if everyone remembered Hot Wheels tracks. The male brand rep said yes, but Pat said, "I didn't haIve Hot Weels. I was a girl." What? I was a girl, too. I had a sister, no brothers. I had and loved Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and the orange tracks. I still remember my favorite car, a white racer with a blue stripe across the top from front to back. I also had a slot car race track that we all loved to play with. Later Dan said that boys love sports cars when they're kids and again when they're middle-aged. Today I am a woman working in high tech. Most of the engineers are men because women tend to drop out of science, tech, engineering, and math (STEM) by college. We need more women in these fields and saying things like this does not encourage girls to get involved in tech. More women in tech would mean better representation of women in video games, apps, and research. There are lots of drugs to cure male baldness and give men erections and it's no coincidence there are a lot of men in research fields. Women are affected differently by drugs because of different metabolisms and suffer more severe side effects from medications. More women in research might be more aggressive about discovering things like this, which has only recently been determined to be a much larger issue than first thought.

There are many famous male chefs, but we still market kitchen toys to girls. And how many boys get teased because they like dolls? Those kids might grow up to be chefs, restaurants owners, or fashion designers. Toys are not gender-specific.

Saying Toy A is for girls and Toy B is for boys has lasting negative impact on the lives of women aand men everywhere. Stop doing it.