The colour pink, in all its various shades, is synonymous with femininity. A whole swathe of the Pantone colour chart would be considered "girly." Pink, peach, fuschia, salmon, mauve, magenta, whatever you want to call it. Anything lighter than red, or purple - and even purple might be considered feminine - is a "girly" colour. But this wasn't always the case.

Pink for Boys and Blue is for Girls

It may come as a surprise for anyone who's ever had to shop for children, but in the early twentieth century, pink was considered a masculine colour. It was perceived as more rugged, more boyish, whilst blue, ironically enough, was considered to be a colour for girls. For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

Retail stores were divided over which colours were appropriate for which genders. Was it blue for boys and pink for girls? Was it pink for boys and blue for girls? A survey by Time Magazine in 1927 showed that some stores sold their ideas one way, and other stores sold the opposite. Regardless of trends, pink and blue weren't clearly defined gender colours for the early half of the twentieth century. Certainly nothing like it is today.

Changing Times

So how did the change happen? Well pink gradually became a more feminine colour, a social and consumer trend, that occurred over the years. Jo B. Paoletti, historian and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, suggested that part of this trend might have been women, having traditionally been deprived of pink in their childhood, reclaiming the colour for their own daughters.

A key time period also could have been the 1980's, where parents to be could more easily discover the gender of their children than ever before. Now, with the ability to buy gender specific baby products before the arrival of the baby, retailers and manufacturers rushed in to fill that market, providing gender specific clothes, and toys, and diapers. Blue for boys and pink for girls, a trend that's continued since.

Still, considering how recent it is, we could very well decide down the line that entirely new colours are suitable only for boys or suitable only for girls.

Originally seen on http://mentalfloss.com/article/65058/when-did-pink-become-girl-color