Gendered Toys

Goals

Reflect on gender stereotypes that divide toys into “boy” or “girl” toys.
Gendered Toys

Brief description of the issue

A strong endorsement of gender stereotypes is associated with higher school dropout rates, for boys as well as for girls. We learn those stereotypes from a very young age, especially through marketing strategies and advertisement used for selling toys. Therefore, gender stereotypes have to be broken down even at the elementary level if we want to give students all the chances they need to succeed in school. It is also part of Québec’s sexuality education program. To meet its goals, concrete activities aiming at deconstructing gender stereotypes can be very helpful and spark interesting discussion with your group.

ACCM, an organization that provides information about and contact information for various health services in Montreal, has created a bank of free sexual health and education lesson plans adapted for elementary and high school teachers in Québec that you can access online.

As gender stereotypes are a big part of the sexuality education program in Québec, very interesting activities can be facilitated to break down gender stereotypes and meet the goals of the program at the same time.

Click on the links below to download the lesson plan and the handout for students.

Documents

Gendered Toys - Lesson Plan
File size: 348 KB (application/pdf)
My Toy Journal - Handout
File size: 17 KB (application/pdf)