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construction.com - 12/05/02

By Judy Schriener

Barbie (the famous doll) has had a few careers since she was "born" in 1959, including as a pilot, an astronaut, a presidential candidate and, in the newly launched "I can be..." career series, a "children's doctor" and art teacher. Now Barbie's maker, Mattel Inc., is asking young girls and their parents for their opinion on what Barbie should be next: a librarian, a policewoman or an architect.

As of Dec. 5, the polls on www.barbie.com indicate that architect Barbie is winning

Poll results courtesy of Mattel Inc., from barbie.com, Dec. 5, 12:00 p.m. EST.

hands down, with about 70% of the votes on both the kids poll and the parents poll. But the results vary daily. On Dec. 4, librarian Barbie was ahead.

The poll results don't count in Mattel's decision as to which doll to make, says Julia Jensen, spokesperson for Mattel. "It's not going to impact to a scientific degree the next doll we create."

Barbie as a "children's doctor" is the first in the "I Can Be..." career series. Image courtesy of Mattel Inc.

That isn't stopping architects around the country, presumably older than barbie.com's target audience of girls three to 11 years old, from voting with a vengeance in both the kids and parents polls, as, apparently are the librarians. The police, which have badly trailed consistently for a week, presumably have other things to distract them from voting.

E-mails have been flying from members and staff of the American Institute of Architects. One of the early senders was Sonya Jury, principal of Jury Designs Inc., Shawnee Mission, Kansas. She got an e-mail with a link to the kids poll from an architect friend and checked it out. Librarian Barbie was ahead. "I thought, 'Wait a minute--we can't lose to a librarian.' I thought I'm going to have a chuckle and send it around." She heard back from a male architect who designs libraries. He defended librarians mightily and asked why he should vote for architect Barbie, to which Jury replied, "Well, she has cooler clothes!"

Barbie as a pilot, from 1998, is now a collector's item. Photo courtesy of Greenfield Gallery, Greenfield, Wisc.

Jury sent an e-mail with the link to Trudy Aron, executive director of the Kansas AIA component (chapter), who sent it on to Susan Schwengels, executive director of the AIA component in Iowa. Schwengels sent it to her members in a weekly electronic newsletter just before Thanksgiving. Others also were sending the link to her via e-mail. "It was kind of popping up all over the place," she says. She felt it was her duty to try to influence the outcome. "We need to set kind of a standard for Barbie here, broaden her perspective," she says, laughing. She checks the poll results daily.

Schwengels also sent the note on to Brenda Henderson at the AIA national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Henderson is managing director for component relations. She sent the note to about three dozen people. "It's made it around and come back to me a couple of times. It's been kind of a fun thing," she says.

Jeff Anderzhon, principal of Invision Architecture, Omaha, Nebr., encouraged his staff of seven to vote. Aside from the fun factor, he says, "I think it's important that we have role models for young women and young girls that are beyond the traditional role models, especially in the construction industry because it's still such a male-dominated world and it's got to change."

Mattel's Jensen didn't know how long the poll would be up, other than for awhile. Mattel's intention with the polls is to spark discussion between parents or teachers and kids, she says.

"We would love to do an architect Barbie, a lawyer Barbie...and other industries where women are making an impact," says Jensen. "But we've found out that girls [age] three to nine don't think that way." They know that Mommy goes to work but they see what she does very differently from how an adult would view it, i.e., "She drinks coffee; she wears a dress to work; she is on the phone all day."

Being an architect or other complex professional "is not in their lexicon," which is why, for example, Mattel's first Barbie in the "I can be..." career series is a "children's doctor" instead of a "pediatrician." Jensen says, "We're really exploring aggressively how we can get around that, because we would love to creat specific [career] Barbies.....We are very interested in creating an engineer Barbie....We have to find a way to make it relevant to little girls."

As to why librarians have, until now, been leading in the poll (and may again--feel free to vote!), Jensen speculates that possibly little girls go to reading groups and the person doing the reading may be considered the librarian. But Jury has another explanation: "Librarians are online all day--they can vote....And, guys have this thing with librarians: 'I really like frumpy librarians with glasses who, after a couple of tequila shots, take their hair out of the bun and get crazy.'"

If architect Barbie does become a reality, she will be treated well by her...um...peers. "It would be a great marketing tool," says Henderson. "We might even make architect Barbie an honorary AIA [member]."

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