@freemo I was just thinking the opposite yesterday, that if I had to help parent a boy, I'd buy and encourage him to play with dolls - after listening to a Naked Neuroscience episode that discussed a research finding that playing with dolls activates regions of the brain to do with empathy and perspective taking, thus helping them develop socially.
Link: (around 07:10 on) https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/naked-neuroscience/food-brain