I am always interested in studies and articles about children and gender specific toys and this one from Canoe is no exception. Researchers studied children aged 9 to 36 months and came to the conclusion that babies naturally just crawl on over to the toy associated with their gender.
I always wondered if maybe we are hardwired to certain shapes, colors or textures with our genders, that maybe in the race for survival they had something to do with food/shelter/tasks. I know that some girls just seem to gravitate towards animals and care-giving, my daughter included, while my son ignored our best attempts to let him have a doll. It was ok for a while, but he never picked up the whole caregiver-game that girls seem to like.
It does seem that sometimes no matter what you do to be a parent who works hard to not perpetuate stereotypes, your boy ends up loving cars and rough games, while your daughter pretends to breastfeed her dolls and is a vet in her spare time.