Lego is introducing a whole set of female scientist figurines this summer, the Guardian reports. These minifigures, which will be part of a 'research institute' box set, are to include an astronomer, a chemist, and a paleontologist.
The toy company introduced its first female scientist figurine — Professor C. Bodin — last fall and before that had been criticized for tapping into gender stereotypes.
Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, submitted the proposal for these figurines to the company's Lego Ideas program, the Los Angeles Times says.
"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," Kooijman writes on her blog. "It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our Lego city communities more diverse."