Banning gender stereotypes

Ads are designed to sell us things, not indoctrinate our children with urban myths and limit their futures

Children seem to pick up on gender stereotypes at an alarmingly early age. And casual impressions can solidify over the years to the point where a girl might reject clear signs that she is good at maths or a boy might absolutely refuse to develop early promise as a poet.

Finding something in life that one is good at is a blessing which not all of us experience. That anyone should miss out on a chance to discover they have a particular talent because of bogus ideas about what a man or a woman should be like is a crime perpetrated by a society on the individual.

But it is also a loss to that society. Prevent half the population from following a certain career path for no good reason and we will all suffer as a result.

So it is a welcome step that the Advertising Standards Authority has moved to ban the worst types of gender stereotyping from our TV screens.

The new rules will create a level playing field for all advertisers and drive up standards as companies pay greater attention to the need to avoid perpetuating what are essentially myths.

Adverts are supposed to make us want to buy things, not indoctrinate our children and limit their futures. An Aptamil baby formula ad showing a baby girl growing up to be a ballerina while baby boys went on to become mountaineers and mathematicians seems almost laughable in its absurdity.

But take a look at a university lecture hall when the subject being taught is engineering and, suddenly, it doesn’t seem quite as amusing.

Last year the Institution of Engineering and Technology found boys were three times as likely as girls to receive toys related to science, technology, engineering and maths.

Some might complain that banning certain adverts amounts to nanny-state interference.

But there is no reason at all for adverts to use stereotypes and there is a real need to rid our society of sexist attitudes.

This is particularly true given the rise in misogyny as a result of the louder voice afforded to bigots by social media.

The appalling treatment of Caroline Criado Perez after she suggested a woman, Jane Austen, one of the UK’S greatest writers, could appear on a bank note was a case in point.

It is in all our interests to ensure the best and brightest in every subject are not being put off at an early age by the accident of their gender.