I believe from the moment you are born parents and society classify boys and girls differently. I am not sure to many people would paint a boys room pink. Personally I can remember wanting to ice skate as a child and my Dad saying no because ice skating was for girls. The same idea applies to the world of toys. A relative would not get a girl a G.I. Joe for Christmas even if she would have liked it. In keeping with the analogy, a parent would not generally buy a girl an Erector set even if she wanted one. I am speaking in generalities and I am sure some parents did buy an Erector set for their daughters but that was not the norm. Erector sets were seen as manly construction projects. Women were not supposed to work with tools and become engineers or construction workers. Today this stereotype still holds true.
A.C. Gilbert knew who his target audience was. As you can see in the logo above he directed his advertisements only to boys. Their was no poiltical correctness in his day. He specifically speaks to boys and only shows boys in the pictures of his advertisments. Carroll Pursell Jr. claims that Gilbert was obsessed with manliness and competition. She goes on to say that for him everything in life was a competition11. Whether this is true is purely speculative. However you cannot argue with the fact that these toys were perceived as boys toys. Elizabeth Joy, a tour guide at the Greenbelt Museum, said that her mom would not let her get an Erector set even though she asked repeatedly. She did go on to say that her friend who was a girl had one that she played with5. Even so, the Erector set and possibly Gilbert himself did its part to perpetuate girls and boys stereotypes.
Shartaecreated a good webpage on dolls. She makes it clear that dolls are primarily girls toys. Shartae even describes the history of dolls and how girls in ancient Rome sacrificed them. She does not exclude boys just like Erectors did not exclude girls but in either case it was not the norm.
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