LEGO Debuts 'Research Institute,' A Set of Adventurous Female Scientists In January, 7-year-old Charlotte wrote a stern letter to LEGO. “Today I went to a store and saw legos in two sections. The pink (girls) and the blue (boys). All the girls did was sit at home and go to the beach and shop, and they had no jobs but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people and had jobs, even swam with sharks.” She concluded her note, “I want you to make more LEGO girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!” 7yo Charlotte writes an adorable and strongly worded letter to LEGO regarding the lack of adventures for girls. — SocImages (@SocImages) January 28, 2014 Lego officials told Charlotte they were working on a new female set of figurines. Today, they debuted the Research Institute play set, complete with a paleontologist, astronomer, and chemist—all girls. The set was created by geoscientist Ellen Koojiman; she’d submitted the idea on LEGO’s crowdsourced design platform, and more than 10,000 people voted on it.
With LEGO’s approval, the set went into production! She wrote in a blog post, “It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our LEGO city communities more diverse.” ABC News reports that the collection is already sold out, though it will be available to buy again later this month. It’s a momentous launch, but LEGO hasn’t overdone the “girl power” aspect. The Research Institute description reads simply, “Make new discoveries with the LEGO Ideas Research Institute with the paleontologist, astronomer and a chemist.” No need for a Miss or a “girl” in there; these figures are simply scientists doing their cool jobs, going on adventures as Charlotte would expect. Reshma Saujani on starting Girls Who Code Sheryl Sandberg took a risk with Google Verizon's Inspire Her Mind Ad Goes ViralA trio of female scientists—an astronomer, a paleontologist and a chemist—are coming to the LEGO universe later this summer.
The series was selected as the latest LEGO Ideas winner, which allows fans to submit and vote on ideas for upcoming sets. The upcoming "Research Institute" is the brainchild of Dr. Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist and LEGO fan from Stockholm. The motivating behind her submission, she explained on her blog, was that "as a female scientist I had noticed two things about the available LEGO sets: a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures. It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our LEGO city communities more diverse." This echoes a sentiment popularized earlier this year when a seven-year-old girl wrote a letter to LEGO complaining about their sterotypically gendered sets. She asked that they "make more LEGO girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!" And now they are doing just that. "Research Institute" came about through LEGO Ideas, a website that allows enthusiasts to submit suggestions for new sets.
Each idea that gathers 10,000 supporters is reviewed by a board of set designers and marketing representatives and from there, select designs are chosen for full-fledged production. A blog post on LEGO Ideas says "the final design, pricing and availability are still being worked out, but it’s on track to be released August 2014, so keep an eye out!"Lego Releases First Female Scientist Wearing glasses and a lab coat, and holding out two Erlenmeyer flasks, Professor C. Bodin (as her nametag reads) is Lego's first female scientist. The new model, simply dubbed the "Scientist," is a member of Lego's Minifigure Series 11, which hit stores in the United States on Sept. 1. Lego has come under fire in recent years for marketing its iconic interlocking bricks mostly to boys and otherwise playing into gender stereotypes in its plastic pantheon. But some researchers and critics say the new, pink-free scientist is a step in the right direction. [Busted! 6 Gender Myths in the Bedroom & Beyond]
"I think this figure is a positive step because it portrays a woman in a STEM career without resorting to gender stereotyping by making her pink or calling her a 'lady scientist,'" Elizabeth Sweet, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California, Davis, told LiveScience in an email, referring to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. Though Professor C. Bodin may be the first female lab scientist in the Lego universe, Scientific American pointed out she is not the first female minifigure with a career in STEM. For example, Lego released a pigtailed doctor in the 1970s and a female astronaut in the 1990s as part of its Ice Planet 2002 series in the 1990s. However, the all-time sex ratio of minifigure models is roughly 4:1 in favor of males, with the female ones often playing into gender stereotypes, Scientific American reported. Sweet also noted that, paradoxically, gender stereotypes seem to have become more embedded in Lego's marketing in recent years.
"While Lego originally marketed their products broadly to children, actively incorporating both boys and girls in their ads, Lego toys today are overwhelmingly designed and marketed according to gender," Sweet wrote. The Denmark-based company has done little to satisfy its critics with its recent girl-geared "Friends" line of female minifigs that are shapelier than the traditional boxy figures. The "Friends" models have collected disapproval for relying on stereotypically feminine colors and storylines, while most other Lego lines today are targeted toward boys and include fewer female characters, Sweet said. "So while I am glad to see Lego releasing the Scientist minifig, she is but one drop in a large bucket of otherwise gendered offerings," Sweet wrote. "Ultimately, it would be ideal to see Lego offer many more non-stereotyped female characters like the Scientist in their sets, and it would be even better to see them go back to marketing such sets to both boys and girls."
Megan Perryman, a campaigner at the U.K.-based organization Let Toys Be Toys, echoed Sweet's sentiments. "The female scientist is a step in the right direction, as it's important for girls to see themselves reflected in as wide a range of occupations as possible, but Lego has a long way to go to make their products and marketing truly inclusive," Perryman wrote in an email to LiveScience. Members of the public can submit design ideas for Lego products through the company's Cuusoo website. (Cuusoo, a Japanese word, loosely translate to "wish.") The Christian Science Monitor reported that one of the projects currently under review is a Female Minifigure Set, which includes an astronomer, paleontologist, falconer, judge, robotics engineer and chemist. The project's creator, who identifies herself as an isotope geochemist named Alatariel Elensar, wrote on the site that female figures are still the minority in Lego sets, though recently the company has started to design and add more.