Created by a female in 1959.  Dedicated to female empowerment for 67 years.

March 9, 1959 is Barbie’s birthday. That was the day Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, launched Barbie at the 1959 Toy Fair. Barbie’s initial reception in the male-dominated industry ranged from skeptical to utter rejection; a few buyers bought token amounts, but most chose to forego buying the doll at all. Afterall, Barbie was a “mature” doll (with adult proportions, no less!) at a time when little girls only nurtured baby dolls. 

But Ruth Handler was a visionary. She chose a different frame of reference than “dolls” when she recognized the potential of a “fashion doll” in a sea of baby dolls.  She stumbled upon the adult-targeted Bild Lili on a trip to Germany and, in a feat of lateral thinking, she figured that a three-dimensional doll girls could enjoy dressing would be more satisfying than the current paper doll offering. She was convinced that girls would feel empowered to play out their dreams of what it would be like to be a grown-up, and she had the power, fearlessness, and commitment to see it through! 

Indeed, it is not surprising that such a bold innovation in girls toys was driven by a visionary female in a position of power.  (Half the toy industry’s target consumers are little girls, and many have yet to elevate women proportionately into the highest positions of decision-making power).   

I worked on Barbie in the 90’s, as Marketing Director on Dolls in 1992 to Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for the entire toy line in 1995-97. We grew the toy line to its highest sales level ever!  Imagine having a complete “valley” at Target (both sides of the aisle)! Imagine the girls buyer at Walmart devoting nearly an entire day to walk the showroom. Imagine Sales working endlessly on retailer product allocations because we never wanted to risk over-shipping the line. 

Given ~80% of Mattel’s profits came from Barbie in the 90’s, females occupied many positions of power. We had a female CEO, CFO, head of Design, head of International. When “Know thy consumer” is mission-critical, the marketing team was largely female.   

As I look back, so many of us have had the chance to contribute to this amazing global icon of female empowerment: men and women within Mattel, retailers, inventors, media, and more! The Barbie movie catapulted Barbie back into the larger zeitgeist. Today, strong leadership at Mattel continues to steer the ship.   

Here’s to another 67 years, Barbie, and the female empowerment you continue to promote—both adults within companies and little girls at home!