This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Not only does this type of marketing reinforce the limiting gender binary, but which toys are deemed "acceptable" for girls and boys do actually wind up influencing subconscious cues of what careers, activities, and interests are "acceptable" for women and men.Last year, NPR asked a poignant question : When did women stop coding? Prior to 1984, plenty of women were pioneers in the industry — until computers became available for use in U.S. homes, when they were marketed as "toys" to men and boys. In the '90s, a Carnegie Mellon study found that "families were much more likely to buy computers for boys than for girls — even when their girls were really interested in computers," NPR reported.The result? A flatlining of women in computer science — and then a steep plunge.Computers are, at face value, gender neutral, all marketing aside. And research has shown that toys that serve an educational purpose (i.e. that help to develop physical, cognitive, artistic skills) are typically categorized as "neutral" or "moderately masculine," according to Professor Judith Elaine Blakemore at Indiana University.According to an interview with the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Blakemore's research has found that toys that are marketed as female tend to "focus on attractiveness and appearance," whereas toys marketed as male may emphasize violence or aggression