Toy company Lego released "Research Institute," a new toy collection featuring women of different scientific professions.
The designs include an all-female ensemble of astronomers, chemists and paleontologists. The design for this project was submitted to Lego Ideas, a fan-based online community that allows Lego fans to submit and vote for new designs.
The designer of the winning collection was Ellen Kooijman, a Swedish geochemist, who noticed that most Lego depictions of scientists were males since she was a child. She also noted that Lego depictions of female characters could promote stereotyping. Her design garnered a total of 10,000 votes.
The new toy set is for sale at $20, but the Lego online store showed that there are no more stocks for this set as of the moment.
The set was chosen and developed by Lego after a Charlotte Benjamin, age 7, wrote a letter to Lego complaining of the limited designs for female toy figures.
"I love Legos but there aren't enough girls - and the ones the company has made just sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, while the boy characters saved people, had jobs, even swam with sharks," Charlotte's letter said, as quoted by NPR.
The release of the all-female scientists set continues the trend of producing female-centric toys for Lego and probably a response on the criticisms encountered by the company. In 2012, Lego released a collection called Friends that became controversial after different groups petitioned the company to withdraw the collection. People were angry about how women were presented in the design - all of them were modeling on a catwalk, hanging out in the beach, or baking cupcakes. A Change.org petition called on Lego to stop perpetuating gender stereotypes and educating children about these through their toys.
In the absence of the all-female scientists collection, a visit to the Lego Online store will show under Girls Category featuring a play house, a shopping mall, a horse stable, and a Model Catwalk.
