There was in the early '80s, too. I remember seeing the product line in the catalogue but not the store shelves. The sets were for making jewellery out of and the like.
And their sales numbers have been abysmal.
I haven't heard how the new "Lego Friends" line has been doing, though.
Ah thats a shame. Lego has always been pretty popular with girls though in my experience, though they tend to play houses with it rather than build vehicles. My girls love it, and so did my wife as a kid. Perhaps the genre specific lego sets have been pushing girls away from lego.