A CAMPAIGN group has won its battle to persuade a major supermarket to remove "sexist" children's clothing from its 500 stores.
The Lewisham-based organisation Pinkstinks complained to Sainsbury's three weeks ago about a range of children's clothing which included a doctor's coat with the word 'boy' written on it.
Other items included a pilot, superhero and soldier outfit labelled 'boy' and a 1940s nurse outfit labelled 'girl'.
Pinkstinks co-founder Abi Moore said: “We asked what sort of sexist message this was sending to girls about what they are fit for and what their aspirations might be.
"As far as we are aware, there are more women at medical school than men nowadays."
She added: "One of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the RAF's first female Red Arrows pilot.
"This is an amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boy’, as were the army outfits - even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for
“We simply drew to Sainsbury’s attention the fact it would be a hugely confident and independent little girl who would dare risk the ridicule of her friends by asking for a costume in-store clearly
‘meant’ for boys."
This week Sainsbury's agreed to remove this range of clothing and announced it will use "non-gender specific" labels on its new children's costume range on sale in July.
A spokesman for the company said: "We made the change as we feel it isn't acceptable to suggest that certain professions are the reserve of any gender."
Pinkstinks is a campaign group which strives to "challenge the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives".
In November last year it called for a boycott of all Early Learning Centre stores, claiming it is one of the worst offenders of the “pinkification” of girls’ toys.