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French retailer, Système U, has triggered controversial debates among professionals and parents recently, by inserting images revolutionising gender norms in its Christmas toy catalogue. As children’s perceptions did not feature in these debates, the purpose of this paper is to explore their reactions to this catalogue, its gender-incongruent images and their associated toys.

An exploratory qualitative study was conducted with 27 children aged five to ten, from middle-upper social class. The methodology combined in one session participant observation, interview with visual stimuli and a collage exercise. First, each child was observed as they browsed freely through the catalogue, commenting it. Second, the interview focussed on four gender-incongruent images inside the catalogue to further explore reactions. Finally, they participated to a collage exercise on a mini-questionnaire, aiming at checking their gender-flexibility.

First, all children tend to focus on their own-gender pages only, as they have an intuitive understanding of the catalogue’s gendered structure. Second, incongruent images tend not to be noticed, with an exception being girls aged nine to ten. Third, the children’s acceptance of the gender-incongruent images is influenced by the gender-constancy stage, with the rigidity peak about gender norms at five to six; children’s own-gender-flexibility, between eight and ten; and the collective nature of the game.

This paper reveals children’s reactions to a toy catalogue containing gender-incongruent images. It provides new insights into how children notice, understand and appreciate these images and concludes with practical implications for retailers about how to better adapt catalogues.

This chapter presents the author’s experiences over a 47-year career as a feminist applied sociologist at Educational Testing Service (ETS), a private non-profit research and testing company. The author presents early experiences that influenced her to become a feminist and a sociologist; her reactions to graduate school, the culture of academia, and her choice to leave before finishing her PhD to become an applied sociologist; the author’s early work in the ETS research department which included graduate school and gender-related publications; and the substantial part of author’s career as an applied sociologist and administrator in ETS’s corporate side. ETS’s founding with the mission to expand educational opportunities with fair, well-designed tests, and to further social science knowledge laid the groundwork for a corporate culture characterized by values of fairness, respect for individuals and diversity, and integrity. The ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness, along with annual reviews of testing programs for following these measurement standards, supported cultural norms, attitudes, and behaviors related to fairness. The multifaceted concept of fairness has been key not only to the author’s experience within the corporate culture but to the wide variety of responsibilities that the author had during her career.

Feminism is important for psychology because both fields of enquiry overlap and insights from both can be usefully shared. The difficulties that arise in existing feminist psychology are a result of a leaning towards oversimplified egalitarian or women‐centred solutions. These emerge in three areas of psychology: women's under‐representation, gender stereotypes and androcentric theory. Examples of egalitarianism and women‐centredness in well‐known feminist psychological studies from all three areas are examined. A linguistic feminist psychology might be able to evade the contradiction between egalitarian and women‐centred approaches.

This study examines the influence of peers in the tax compliance setting using a social learning theory approach to investigate the effect of observing a peer's likelihood of reporting income. We also examine the role that gender plays in these decisions. We ask participants to estimate the likelihood of reporting income and to make a binary compliance decision in a setting where they are able to observe what they believe is another's response to a hypothetical tax reporting scenario. Participants who viewed the decision of a noncompliant peer were less likely to report honestly than those who viewed the decision of a compliant peer. This finding provides further evidence of a potential effect for peer influence. Consistent with prior literature, we find that women are more likely to comply than men, but do not find an interactive effect with peer observation. A supplemental experiment indicated that participants who believed their responses would be seen by a peer were less likely to report honestly than participants who believed their responses would remain private. This result, although counter-intuitive, is consistent with Wenzel's (2005a) description of a self–other discrepancy and conformance to a misperceived social norm.

The purpose of this study is to examine the advancement of cultural transformation over time demands certain alterations in human perceptions. It also aims to examine the 21st century’s many radical changes in India, the constant legal battles to decriminalize homosexuality, and challenges to the rigid dichotomy between heterosexuality and homosexuality. Besides, it influences popular culture among the masses, which has turned out to create a more visible space for the lesbian community. In India, lesbian literature begins synchronously under the shades of women’s writing and feminism that wires new hopes for their identity.

This paper examines a primary text as Indian writer Abha Dawesar’s Babyji (2005). There comes the iconic work of Abha Dawesar’s Babyji (2005), which creates a turning point by introducing the life, inner conflict and turbulence of a teenage girl. In addition, a textual analysis of this novel brings forth an analysis of attributes such as sexuality, gender and the interplay of caste and class that meld lesbian childhood and adolescence. This paper also examines how a lesbian girl adapts to and negotiates her maturation amidst vivid social scenarios and cultural conditioning.

A few studies (Hidalgo, et al., 2013; Bem, 1989; Pyne, 2016) show many children have reached or crossed their teenage life without accurate or affirmative knowledge of sexuality and gender. Parents, teachers and even other intellectuals of the adult world fail to transfer their knowledge effectively to children. Definitely, the relevance of sex education is paramount, but more important is what implementation tactics should be used for the same cause. The point is that sex education should not be condensed into a certain gender or perpetuate parochial discrimination. It needs to adapt an age-appropriate curriculum for the cognitive and emotional development of the individuals. Considering these factors, understanding comprehensive sex education is what is most likely to find sustainable remedies for this matter. Gerald writes about a socialization process and gays and lesbians hiding their identity from family and society; a fear of rejection; there is a social gap in peer and family spheres. These fears prevent lesbian or gay young persons from fully developing their identities (1999). Rao and Mason tested a model derived from minority stress theory in which the perceived impact of Section 377 increases depressive symptoms of sexual minorities by increasing concealment stress, leading to a diminished sense of belonging. Because of their minority status, they are more vulnerable to and have a higher prevalence of mental illness than heterosexual individuals (2018).

Babyji has created a discourse to perpetuate normativity and gives importance to the mental health of the excluded lesbian group. It opens a door to studying teenage groups’ issues and their challenges to understanding social and mental issues regarding their identity. A study on this untouched area is required to highlight their issues and mental health problems. This research is an initiative step to create and provide a platform to raise awareness in society.

This paper aims to examine what elements in online environments promote engagement, learning and repeated visits for children aged 6‐12 years.

An in‐depth textual analysis, exploring components such as navigation, construction of site, character choice and development, style of text, types of questioning, animation, color and other factors, of six English‐language web sites, describing themselves as “educational and fun”, was carried out against a background of literature available on web site design for children, relying particularly on media text analysis and an evaluation method produced in relation to children's motivation and web site use.

The analysis of the six web sites resulted in a number of usability requirements for children's web sites, including the following: web sites should have an understanding of the community of users they serve; web sites should offer dynamic forms of learning; web sites should encourage interaction between users and site designers; web sites should offer open activities rather than closed ones; web sites should view young people as persons with rights.

Insights gained from the analysis of six web sites are hard to generalize. User behavior was not studied.

Web designers should bear the usability requirements in mind when designing web sites for children.

Although educational content for children on the internet is growing exponentially, the area is relatively under‐researched. This is one of the first detailed analyses of entertaining educational web sites targeting children.