arbiter
JournalsAccount

The gendered marketing of children’s toys: An integrative review and de-gendering agenda

Sadaf Sagheer et al.

Marketing Theory2025https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931251342546article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Gendered marketing – the division of the marketplace into restrictive binary gender categories – is particularly pronounced in children’s markets. In recent years, this practice has attracted increasing public and policy attention due to concerns about its potential to entrench gendered inequities from a young age. Yet, scholarship has largely overlooked how gendered marketing socialises children into binary gendered categories. To address this, we present an integrative review of the gendered marketing of children’s toys. We synthesise the fragmented interdisciplinary literature on the topic to develop a framework that illustrates how gendered marketing to children operates, in turn conceiving how marketing acts as a key agent of gender socialisation. Specifically, we identify four gendered marketing tools and their underlying tactics that (re)produce limited and harmful gender categorisations in the marketplace. To redress this, we present an agenda for de-gendering marketing to children to take action against gender injustices in markets.

6 citations

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931251342546

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{sadaf2025,
  title        = {{The gendered marketing of children’s toys: An integrative review and de-gendering agenda}},
  author       = {Sadaf Sagheer et al.},
  journal      = {Marketing Theory},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931251342546},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

The gendered marketing of children’s toys: An integrative review and de-gendering agenda

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.44 × 0.4 = 0.18
M · momentum0.65 × 0.15 = 0.10
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.