Last semester, during our Barbie discussion, a student mentioned how inspirational Barbie has been for young girls. The student’s main point - if I recall correctly - was that Barbie has taught girls that they can be whatever they want. So…I decided to do a bit of research into Barbie’s careers….
After reading this, I looked on Amazon for various Barbie computer games available for kids growing up in the computer age. Here is a quick summary of the results I uncovered:
- Fashion and beauty (11)
- Explorer (Indiana Jones-style)
- Horse Riding Camp (2)
- Secret Agent
- Detective, Mystery (3)
- Gymnastics, Sports, Ice Skating
- Princess, Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty
- Animal Rescue (2)
- Movie Director
Looking at both the computer games and dolls occupations list, I would definitely say that the list is a bit…limiting. There is a significantly higher number of games and occupations that are more stereotypically feminine, but there are also a couple of surprising careers, like detective, explorer, president, computer engineer, business executive, etc. Barbies are covering a wide range of careers that can be seen as very encouraging for young girls. Yes, some jobs such as professor, mathematician, or even scientist haven’t made it onto the list but on the whole I am encouraged. I am hoping that Mattel continues with this trend of expanding Barbie’s career choices to really demonstrate and teach girls that they can be whatever they want.
