Boys cooking in the kitchen. Girls using power tools.

These scenes have been playing out across Canada for decades – but until recently, you’d never have known it based on major retailers’ holiday catalogues.

The toy sections of these catalogues, like the toy departments of the stores for which they advertise, have historically perpetuated traditional gender roles – sports and building blocks for boys, dolls and housekeeping for girls.

Slowly but surely, that’s been changing. David Soberman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, sees it as being indicative of a larger societal shift away from the same gender roles. Retailers need to appeal to as many people as possible, so any changes in Canada at large need to be reflected in their advertising and marketing.

Soberman points to hockey equipment as a good example of this shift.

“If you looked at a Canadian Tire catalogue from the 1960s, and you looked at the marketing of hockey equipment, you would not see many if any pictures of females playing hockey,” he said Wednesday via telephone.

Girls’ hockey has grown by leaps and bounds since those days. The number of registered players in Canada increased more than tenfold between 1990 and 2010. Retailers followed that trend, incorporating women and girls into their advertisements for hockey equipment.

“That’s a big change, but that’s a reflection of how society’s changed,” Soberman said. The shift accomplished two goals, helping the retailer reach an emerging market while also positioning it as in line with changing attitudes in society.

Andrea Tomkins, a mother and blogger from Ottawa, noticed another example last week while leafing through Canadian Tire’s current hockey catalogue.

A picture of a boy holding a spoon from a toy kitchen next to a picture of a girl holding a drill from a toy tool set stuck out to her.

“It may not seem like very much, but I think it’s really cool,” she tweeted.

A picture of the advertisement went viral, garnering hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes. Dozens of parents chimed in with stories of their kids using and enjoying toys supposedly not meant for their gender.

“Let’s just let kids play with toys and not let perceived gender roles get in the way,” Tomkins said.

“All kids can – and should – play with pretend food, toy cars, dolls, building sets. All kids can dress up in pink or blue or green. Anyone can wear glittery nail polish.”

Soberman agrees, saying many toy manufacturers and retailers are taking similar steps to eliminate gendered toys – both in their advertising and in how toys are displayed in stores.

“Canadian Tire’s doing more than trying to market the toys,” he said.

“They’re trying to market an image, which is that they’re progressive and trying to be in line with the views that we have now.”