While we are riding on the fourth wave of feminism it’s becoming increasingly important not only to grant women the rights they have been denied in the past but also give them credit in spaces that have been dominated by men and rendered women invisible.
Lego has taken this initiative in the toy industry with the launch of “Women of NASA” - a Lego set featuring women who played important roles in the US space programme. According to this report by Stuff the proposed set, includes figurines of Sally Ride; the first American woman in space, Katherine Johnson; an African-American mathematician who made contributions to the United States’ aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA, Nancy Grace Roman; an astronomer who was one of the first female executives at NASA, Mae Jemison; the first African-American woman in space and Margaret Hamilton; a pioneering computer scientist.
According to this report by the CNN, the “Women of NASA” set was created by Maia Weinstock, a science editor and writer at MIT News as part of Lego Ideas; a platform which allows fans and users to come up with ideas for Lego sets.
For Weinstock “Women Of NASA” is a milestone because she feels it’s “critical to have toys” that girls can play with and identify with other than the ones that exist with stereotypical gender associations. For Weinstock “Women In NASA” is a way to let more and more people know about women’s remarkable contributions to space so that the message is loud and clear to both men and women; “ women belong in engineering, in mathematics” and other technical professions that they are often thought unsuitable or incapable of pursuing successfully.
Though it is still unclear when the “Women of NASA” set will be available in stores as Lego is still working on the final product design and pricing.
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