And all thanks to the efforts of a university student called Antonia Ayres-Brown that he has spent the last 5 years fighting for change to occur.
It has happened in U.S And so far when a child asked for a Happy meal He was given a different toy than the one a girl received when ordering the same menu, that is, there are different toys for each sex. But according to a circular issued by the Diversity Office of the brand this policy will change. Hopefully it's true that McDonald's takes a step towards eliminating its sexist toys.
In 2008, Antonia sent a letter to McDonald's CEO criticizing his sexist policy when assigning Happy Meal toys. In it, Antonia stated that employees asked who asked for a menu if I wanted a boy or girl toy and I compared it to how ridiculous the situation could be when a job interview asked if you want one for a man or a woman.
McDonald's response was not very encouraging that time, they said that the employees of the brand were not trained to select toys by sex and that what he had witnessed was a mere anecdote.
So Antonia has spent the last five years promoting campaigns for the elimination of sexist toys from these types of establishments. One of the last was during last summer and consisted of using children, who went to different establishments to ask for a Happy Meal and verified what happened at the time of choosing the type of gift.
It turned out that in most establishments, 92% to be exact, took into account the sex of the child asking for the menu and without asking, simply delivered the designated toy for each sex. Antonia wrote down everything and wrote back to McDonald's CEO with the results he had obtained. And this time he got an answer.
In the letter signed by Patricia Harris, Director of Diversity at McDonald's in which I thanked her for her observations and pledged to change company policies regarding the delivery of toys with Happy Meals so that from that moment the child would be asked what toy preferred
According to Antonia, despite not being a complete victory, remember that the goal is to eliminate the differentiation by sex, if you think it has been a big step in the right direction by the hamburger giant.
Another of the changes that has been seen is that in several restaurants the toy nomenclature for boys or girls toy has ceased to exist, so that when one of these menus is requested, it is necessary to specify which gift is the one that is wanted.
In my case, we do not usually take my children to restaurants of this type, it is not that we have them banned, in fact we have ever gone, but if we can choose, it is normal that we choose another type of place. I have to say that in my experience, the times we have gone I think it has coincided with "neutral" promotions in terms of sex. The last one was Scooby Doo and the toys they gave them both was the van of the band and from what I saw around me it seemed that I was the only one that was being distributed.
I still see, with some exception, how boys look for those toys that have traditionally been theirs and in the case of girls, the same. I see how at the exit of the school, the children crowd in the showcase area with superheroes, cars and weapons and the girls go to the "more civilized" area. I know that we still have a long way to go.
