A major retailer in California is just weeks away from having to make a gender-neutral toy section for children or risk fines of up to $500 under a controversial state law set to take effect in the new year.
Under the terms of the law signed by Gavin Newsom into law in 2021, California-based department stores with 500 or more employees that sell “child care items or toys,” must have a gender-neutral section “regardless of the same there it has been used traditionally. marketed for women or men.”
It defines “child care products” as any product designed to facilitate sleep, child feeding, relaxation or “to assist children in sucking or teething” and defines children as those aged 12 down.
Any department store that fails to create a gender-neutral section can be fined $250 for the first violation, and fined $500 for any subsequent violations.
The bill was originally introduced into the California Assembly by then-Assemblyman Evan Low, who compared it to previous laws that required publicly traded companies to add women to their corporate boards, forced employers to release salary data to improve gender equity and required a – residential bathrooms to use “all gender” signs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Traditionally, children’s toys and products have been categorized by the gender of the child,” Low, who now serves as a congressman for the Golden State, told his fellow lawmakers at the time, according to the Washington Post.
A California retailer with more than 500 employees required to start a gender-neutral toy section starting next year risks a $500 fine. Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“In retail, this has led to proliferation [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]-games geared towards ‘boys’ and toys that direct girls to pursuits such as babysitting, fashion and home life.
“The segregation of toys by social constructions of what is appropriate for gender is the antithesis of modern thought.”
Children can decipher which toys are meant for girls and which are meant for boys by age 3, according to Campbell Leaper, a professor of psychology at the University of California Santa Cruz.
California’s Gavin Newsom said after signing the bill that we need to “stop stigmatizing what is acceptable for a certain gender.” AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File
“We know from a lot of different research that when they have those categories in their heads, and if you try to label something for girls or boys, kids will often ignore it if it’s labeled for the other gender,” she told the LA Times.
Low said that’s why he was encouraged to write the bill.
“We need to stop stigmatizing what is acceptable for a certain gender and let kids be kids,” she told the Associated Press after Newsom signed it into law.
The law was introduced to the California Assembly by then-Assemblyman Evan Low. REUTERS/Brittany Hosea-Small
“My hope is that this bill encourages more businesses across California and the US to refrain from reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes,” he said, adding that he was “very grateful” to receive Newsom’s support.
But some see the bill as overreaching the government, and its way of forcing social change on corporations.
“Activists and state legislators have no right to force retailers to support government-approved messages about gender,” Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Law Council lobby group argued, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s a violation of free speech, and it’s clearly wrong.”
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
