Shops should stop labelling and segregating toys by gender as it may be a factor in discouraging girls from going into science and engineering careers in later life, Jenny Willott, an equalities minister, has suggested.

Willott, a senior Liberal Democrat, said the government was working with the retail industry to end division of toys by gender into separate girls' and boys' aisles.

Children should be able to make their own choices over which toys they want to play with, without them being labelled as "for girls" or "for boys", she said.

The government's main concern is that girls are not discouraged from playing with engineering toys, chemistry kits and other products that might interest them in a scientific career, she added.

"We're very keen to work with the industry to work and see how we can make it easier for girls and make it more attractive for girls to get involved and play with these toys," Willott told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"We want to look at how toy shops are laid out. We want to talk to manufacturers about how they package things.

"There's been a move, for example, among a number of retailers from having boys' toys aisles and girls' toys aisles but doing it by categories, so you have some on construction, and you have some on science, rather than categorising them by gender. Another thing is looking at doing it by age, or doing it by price and so on and different retailers are doing different things."

Willott stressed that she wanted children to make their own choices but the government did not want them to feel like certain toys were not suited to their gender.

"My boys are obsessed with cars and trains and anything that moves on wheels [and] there are absolutely plenty of girls who want pink and they want to play with dolls and they're absolutely not interested in anything else," she said. "That's absolutely fine but what we want to do is make sure that we don't close their options off at an early age. There are some fantastic toys out there, for example, for girls – engineering toys, science kits and things."

Willott met toy manufacturers and retailers on Thursday as part of the government's drive to encourage more girls to take physics and maths qualifications and to consider a career in science, technology, maths and engineering professions.

There is a shortage of skilled workers in some of these areas in the UK that could be partly addressed by increasing the number of women in these industries. Fewer than one in 10 engineering professionals are female.

Speaking after the meeting, Willott said the companies and the government "agreed to work together to look at customers' attitudes to toys and the choices they make in buying them".