Gender Issues of Playing with Dolls

The topic of my bachelor's thesis is related to gender socialization and accepted stereotypes, which lead to a different education and interests of girls and boys. Main aim of my research is to explore attitudes of preschool children to different types of dolls and the toy choice itself. As play is a key activity in preschool age, it is important to know attitude and preferences of children to one of most used kind of toy. Another goal of my thesis is to figure out, whether the oldest children in kindergarten are gender distinctive and if their distinctiveness is displayed while playing with dolls and in dialog. I have also observed whether children in the doll's selection prefer physical appearance, or the cultural characteristics. According to the theory of development we may expect that preschool children have built basic gender identity, which is perceived by them as partly changable. I have chosen individual controlled interview and semi-structured observation to achieve the results. My research shows that children have a similar idea of toys that are designed to boys and girls (doll, car, building kit, Gormits). It is interesting that both girls and boys consider doll to be toy for both genders, although boys consider it after all to be rather feminine