I've been a girl all my life, a LEGO fan nearly as long, and
I'm so excited because LEGO will (finally) produce a set of very special female
Minifigures called the "Research Institute." This new set will feature three Minifigures;
a chemist, astronomer, and paleontologist. All three will be female, and all
will be fully equipped with their respective tools of the trade; a chemistry lab,
telescope, and dinosaur skeleton. It's due to come out this August.
In the past, female Mnifigures have been rare. I only had one
very clearly female among hundreds of male or, at best, gender-ambiguous Minifigs. Ever since I got that one female in 1992, I
used her head on other Minifig bodies so I could have a female racecar driver,
a female pirate, or even a female astronaut. The fact that I had to use one
head for a multitude of careers never bothered me, but it would have been nice
to see more female faces in my childhood tub of LEGOs.
LEGO has definitely increased the production of female
Minifigures since the 1990s, and the introduction of LEGO Friends in 2012,
which is designed to appeal to girls, has been very successful. Some feel,
however, that the LEGO Friends product line promotes gender stereotypes. I
don't own any LEGO Friends sets, but after taking a look, I did feel that the
products were a little Barbie-esque.
Image Credit: LEGO Ideas
The fact that LEGO is now intentionally putting females in
traditionally male-dominated roles makes both childhood and present-day me very
happy. LEGO, I love you to pieces!
Resources
Soon
There Will Be Female Scientist LEGOs
| 
Re: LEGO to Create Female Scientists
