There some assembly required but LEGO hopes to change the way young girls think about certain jobs.
The company behind the iconic brick-building toy released "The Research Institute" set on Monday. The kit includes three female figures as a chemist, an astronomer and a paleontologist. It's the company's first ever all-female playset but also draws attention to the lack of women in STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Despite representing the bulk of university graduates, 39 per cent of STEM university grads were women, according to a Stats Canada study.
On the flip side, women make up for two-thirds of university grads between the ages of 25 to 34 for non-STEM programs. That number jumps to 80 per cent when it comes to women who graduated from programs focusing on health or education.
It's no surprise then the playset comes courtesy of llen Kooijman. Kooijman, a geologist, submitted the idea during LEGO's public contest for new product sets. She eventually won, with LEGO picking up her idea in June, Think Progress reports.
The unveiling comes after some critics have accused the Danish toy maker of catering too much to boys (there's four male figures for every female toy they produce). Back in 2014, LEGO received a letter from Charlotte Benjamin, a seven-year-old girl disgruntled with the company for their portrayal of women in the toys.
"Today I went to a store and saw LEGOs in two sections the girls pink and the boys blue. 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, even swam with sharks," she wrote.
While the "The Research Institute" set doesn't have any sharks, it's got a T-Rex skeleton. Still, that might not be enough since LEGO's move hasn't made up for past attempts to cater towards girls, according to the Newsy video above.
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