Is pink for girls only?

In physiotherapie school we must attend five internships in different departments to get to know the diversified field of work. Currently I’m in a pediatric physiotherapy practice. I really like it but apart from working with the children I noticed that almost all baby girls are dressed in pink and the boys in blue. Now that I’m confronted with this situation almost every day I wondered why it seems to be state of the art dressing the babies like that. At least here in Germany. Feel free to tell me, if it’s any different in your country. I’d really like to read your stories.

I did a little research on that topic and found out some interesting information. Before the first world war pink was a color for boys because red was, and I guess still is associated with fighting for example. So pink as a shade of red happened to be a manly color. In contrast the baby girls where dressed in light blue. However, after the war in the year 1920 it changed, because blue became the color of working men. Since then the baby boys where dressed in blue and the girls in pink.

Back then I guess they probably didn’t have such colorful dresses as today, so why stick to that tradition? And why is it, that all the things the children play with are also assigned to those two colors? Who decides what a boy or girl should play with? Of course, more boys choose to play with cars for example but if a girl wants it too who has the right to forbid it just because it isn’t meant for her?
The way I see it children shouldn’t be forced into this role allocation so early. Maybe we would’t have some of the problems we have today if we’d change that…

Please share your thoughts with me 😊