<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"   A teenager from New Haven in America has gained a small but wholly triumphant victory against McDonald&amp;#039;s and their gender-specific Happy Meal toys. As a mere 11 yr old, Antonia Ayres-Brown wrote to the corporation of the golden arches to complain about the way toys were handed out at McDonald&amp;#039;s stores. &amp;quot;My letter asked if it would be legal for McDonald&amp;#039;s to ask at a job interview whether someone wanted a man&amp;#039;s job or a woman&amp;#039;s job?,&amp;quot; Antonia wrote for Slate. Antonia&amp;#039;s comments were met with a response from Maccy D&amp;#039;s saying that staff never asked gender based &amp;quot;girl&amp;#039;s toy or boy&amp;#039;s toy&amp;quot; themed questions when handing out the Happy Meals - which Anotnia seemingly figured, was a pile of crap. Antonia continued. She visited a whole load more McDonald&amp;#039;s and made records of the way she was asked about toys, proving that 79% of the stores she visited talked about the toys in gendered language. She compiled all her findings into a complaint to the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities against McDonald&amp;#039;s for sex-based discrimination - who called it &amp;quot;absurd&amp;quot; once received. Then, last year, Antonia co-ordinated groups of children to go into McDonald&amp;#039;s branches individually and ask for Happy Meals. She found that more often than not (92.9% of the time), the children weren&amp;#039;t asked about their toy preference and just handed the &amp;quot;girl&amp;#039;s toy&amp;quot; or the &amp;quot;boy&amp;#039;s toy&amp;quot; depending on what gender they were. Prompted by a response from McDonald&amp;#039;s suggesting that all Antonia had to do was ask for a boys toy and she&amp;#039;d be fine, Antonia tested this with the children; She found that if a child attempted to swap a toy for one not stereotypically provided for their gender, they were laughed away by the staff or told that they had no other toys left. When an adult asked for the same swap for their child, their requests were met by the staff. Antonia then wrote to the new CEO of McDonald&amp;#039;s (Donald Thompson) with these findings, and actually received a positive response, posting: &amp;quot;On December 17, 2013, I received an amazing letter back from McDonald&amp;#039;s Chief Diversity Officer, Patricia Harris, saying, &amp;#039;It is McDonald&amp;#039;s intention and goal that each customer who desires a Happy Meal toy be provided the toy of his or her choice, without any classification of the toy as a &amp;#039;boy&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;girl&amp;#039; toy and without any reference to the customer&amp;#039;s gender. We have recently reexamined our internal guidelines, communications and practices and are making improvements to better ensure that our toys are distributed consistent with our policy.&amp;#039; &amp;quot; We&amp;#039;ll watch what happens next with a KEEN EYE. (Read Antonia&amp;#039;s full blog here) ALSO IN THE NEWS: BRITAIN&amp;#039;S SEXIST CULTURE &amp;#039;MORE IN YOUR FACE&amp;#039; THAN ANYWHERE ELSE &amp;quot;I KNOW HE LOVES ME BECAUSE HE SAID HE&amp;#039;S GOING TO RAPE ME&amp;quot; - THE HORRENDOUS LIVES OF GIRLS IN GANGS 20 YR OLD EXPOSES HORRIFIC ABUSE OF WOMEN SEEKING SOLACE IN BRITAIN "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/a26357/teenager-gets-victory-against-mcdonalds-gender-biased-happy-meal-toys/>