Lady Geek

Barbie has found a new career: she is now a computer engineer. The computer engineer Barbie wears pink-framed glasses, a bluetooth headset and a binary code shirt. She also has a pink laptop. The press release states that ‘Barbie® designers worked with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to ensure that accessories, clothing and packaging were realistic and representative of a real computer engineer.’ I personally have seen more managers with headsets than computer engineers and none of the computer engineers I have ever met had a pink laptop or pink-framed glassed.

However we see how a computer engineering Barbie could make the option to become a computer engineer more attractive to girls. While such an approach is laudable, Mattel could have thought about going a step further and giving Barbie a different colour laptop. If the Binary Barbie increases the number of women in computing remains to be seen.