The Lego company has recently launched a new collection showcasing female scientists with the help of Geoscientist Ellen Kooijman. The new Research Institute Collection has been met with remarkable success, and soaring sales. The kit includes three female figurines, a pleontologist, a chemist, and an astronomer.
This isn’t the first time that LEGOs has launched an entirely female set, in 2011 the LEGO Friends pack was met with heavy criticism because of the clear stereotypes shown by including a pink and purple house and a hair salon. Overall, the percentage of LEGOs female figurines in all of their sets has been reported to be extremely low, and it was just a matter of time before the corporation was forced to make a change for the better.
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“All the girls did was sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and they had no jobs but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people, and had jobs, and even swam with sharks.”
This most recent push for a LEGO set with female scientists is largely due to a letter to the company written by a 7 year old girl named Charlotte Benjamin, that went viral through social media. Thanks to this letter and to people around the world demanding more accurate representation of females with professions, LEGO produced its own first female scientist, a character who could attach new pieces to minifigures that lost their legs. The Research Institute Collection is still available for purchase but there is a 30 day wait due to its popularity.
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