This year, to celebrate International Women’s Day, I have revisited some of the minifigures I have which are based on real-life, inspirational women, and taken some new photos. It’s short and simple and didn’t cause me to develop the same level of mental anguish as attempting to work out whether or not LEGO Star Wars was doing a better job with more female minifigures, as I did last year.

First, we have Jane Goodall, who was featured in a Tribute set in 2022, still available as a gift with purchase. Jane Goodall is known for her work observing Chimpanzees in Tanzania in the 1960s and helping to expand our understanding of the group behaviours of this curious primate. While continuing to study the Chimpanzees, it became apparent that both the habitat was being destroyed, and the Chimpanzees were being hunted, and so in recent decades, she has dedicated her energies towards helping preserve habitat, rehabilitate chimps orphaned by the bushmeat trade and educating people about the environmental challenges faced. She has also founded Roots and Shoots, a global humanitarian and environmental program to empower young people to get more involved in their communities.

Amelia Earhart was featured in a tribute set in 2021 for Women’s History Month. An inspirational aviatrix, she was the first woman to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Taking off from Newfoundland, hoping to land in Paris. Unfortunately, the fates combined with bad weather and she landed in Ireland. She went on to complete many other many other milestones in women’s aviation, before vanishing over the Pacific five years later.

Our next images come from the Women of NASA – LEGO Ideas set 21312 from 2017.

Nancy Roman: a keen astronomer from an early age, was the first Chief of Astronomy at NASA’s Office of Space Science.  She was actively engaged in the development and planning of the Hubble Space Telescope, ultimately launched in 1990.

Margaret Hamilton was always interested in mathematics and was involved in writing software for air defence and weather prediction while at MIT.  She went on to lead the team that put together the inflight navigation software for the Apollo moon landing program.

Mae Jemison began her university studies at age 16, completing her Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and African Studies.  She then went on to complete her MD, and spent time working in Africa before becoming the first African American woman to fly in space. In 1992, she flew onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour carrying out experiments in life sciences, material sciences and medicine. [Fun Fact: Mae Jemison also had a walk-on role in an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation]

Sally Ride was completing her PhD in physics when she applied to become an astronaut, becoming the first American woman in space in June 1983 onboard the Space Shuttle  Challenger. She flew again in 1984.  She left NASA in 1987 and became a physics professor.  She died in 2012.

I quite enjoyed bringing out a couple of these sets again (Jane Goodall was still next to the LightBox): I chose the angle I used because these inspirational women are all people for us to look up to. I shall probably survey the 2022 City sets Minifigure population soon, but my initial casual glance at the range suggests that things are far more balanced than they have been in the past. I find myself wondering who we might see in next year’s tribute set.

Who would you like to see? why not leave your comments below, and until next time,

Play Well!