Color and Gender Role

I work at a daycare with children ages three to five and while I was working the other day I noticed something I thought was interesting. As an activity we commonly help the children make playdough for them to play with, naturally as were making it we also get to choose the color. The other day we made the playdough pink and I was shocked to see how much of an effect that had on which children went to go play with it. Exclusively girls were playing with the playdough, for the entire playtime there wasn't a single boy who went to go the section. I asked one of the boys if he would go to play with the playdough with me and he said "no it's pink, pink is for girls!" I was so surprised that children as young as three years old would already have such divided and specific gender roles and opinions that I chose to do some more research on it.
In the article I found it reviews how people use color as an indicator of gender from birth. The article also covers an experiment conducted with elementary aged children and the degree of enforcing gender roles on them in the classroom. I personally found it very interesting and am more conscious of even the specific words and colors I use around children with regard to gender. I hope you enjoy the article!

  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-pink-and-blue/201403/the-way-we-talk-about-gender-can-make-big-difference