Only 14% of engineers are women, according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.  Reasons for the gap include a lack of female engineering role models, a misconception of engineering careers and a lack of technical problem solving opportunities in the classroom versus their male counterparts.

Debbie Sterling, the creator & CEO of GoldieBlox, hopes to inspire the next generation of female engineers through the story of Goldie, a girl who builds machines to solve problems.  GoldieBlox is intended “to inspire girls the way Legos and Erector sets have inspired boys, for over 100 years, to develop an early interest and skill set in engineering.”

Source: http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2013/11/22/goldieblox-ad-encourages-girls-to-try-engineering