Gender Neutral Retail Departments

Division 1, Part 2.57 of the Civil Code provides for the gender neutral retail departments. Section 55.7 provides two legislative findings and declarations.

Section 55.8 provides that a retail department store that offers childcare items or toys for sale is required to maintain a gender neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells must be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.

This section applies only to retail department stores that are physically located in California that have a total of 500 or more employees across all California retail department store locations. This section does not apply to retail department stores that are physically located outside California.

A retail department store that fails to comply with this section is liable for a civil penalty, not to exceed $250 for a first violation or $500 for a subsequent violation, which may be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by a public prosecutor.

The terms “childcare item,” “children,” and “toy” are defined.