I arrived at local the Mall at 10 am on a sunny Saturday morning. My first stop was at the Hallmark Store. I wandered over to the children's birthday card section. First, I noticed the color scheme of the cards. I saw that 90% of the cards for girls include some shade of pink in the design (Gender Socialization, 2011). Not one of the boy's cards had the shade of pink on it (Gender Socialization, 2011). Even the gender neutral cards did not have pink on them (Gender Socialization, 2011). This sends a message to our children that even colors are associated with gender. When a girl receives a birthday card with a design of a princess, she learns that she should be a princess and pink is associated with being a girl (Gender Socialization, 2011). Most of the cards for boys have a car, truck, or superhero on them (Gender Socialization, 2011). He learns that he should be masculine, heroic and rough and tough.
             My next stop was Macy's Department Store on the second level. As soon as I walked in the store I couldn't help but notice all the advertisements for women. Everywhere I looked there were mannequins dressed in the latest fashion trends, advertisements with pictures of the ideal woman and shoes everywhere. And of course, there are more stores for women because women shop more than men. The most common types of merchandise geared toward women is lingerie, jewelry, shoes, purses, make-up, and perfume. Merchandise geared toward men are tools, sports equipment, video games, electronics, and televisions.
             In my opinion, restaurants with bars in them are designed with men in mind. Men can drink, watch sports on large screen televisions, sit in comfortable chairs and talk with other men. My husband has waited for me many times in this type of restaurant while I shopped because he doesn't like to go from store to store.
             The next store I visited was Toys R Us. Many of the toys geared toward girls were Barbie's, jump ropes, and hula hoops. T...