Pink used to be a boy's colour and blue a girl's – here's why it all changed

Business Insider spoke to writer,
lecturer, and colour expert Gavin Evans about the reversal of
pink and blue on traditional gender roles.

Read the full transcript
below:

"In the early part of the
20th Century and the late part of the 19th Century, in
particular, there were regular comments advising mothers that if
you want your boy to grow up masculine, dress him in a masculine
colour like pink and if you want your girl to grow up feminine
dress her in a feminine colour like blue."

"This was advice that was
very widely dispensed with and there were some reasons for this.
Blue in parts of Europe, at least, had long been associated as a
feminine colour because of the supposed colour of the Virgin
Mary's outfit."

"Pink was seen as a kind of
boyish version of the masculine colour red. So it gradually
started to change however in the mid-20th Century and eventually
by about 1950, there was a huge advertising campaign by several
advertising agencies pushing pink as an exclusively feminine
colour and the change came very quickly at that
point."