Playing with Barbie dolls could limit girls’ career choices, study shows
- By Loretta Boronat
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- 01 Sep, 2015
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Aurora Sherman of the School of Psychological Science at Oregon State University has found that girls who play with Barbie dolls perceive fewer career options for themselves than for boys. the finding are based on an experiment conducted where the researched controlled a variable (i.e the type of toy each child played with) and produced different results for those who played with Barbie and those who played with Mrs. Potato Head– who in this case is considered a neutral doll that doesn’t have the sexualized characteristics of Barbie. The result of the experiment showed that those girls who played with barbie thought they could do fewer jobs than boys could and the ones who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported equal career possibilities between themselves and boys.The study was designed to examine how Barbie might influence girls’ career aspirations because of the way fashion dolls, such as Barbie, are physically formed and dressed which communicates messages of sexualization and objectification to girls. Although childhood development is complex and playing with one toy isn’t likely to alter a child’s career aspirations, it’s always best to include a variety of children’s toys for balance. Read more about the study here…
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