Re: Girls on Teams
 

And why can't the girls do that?

In a previous year, a couple of girls were lifting the robot onto the field. The robot probably outweighed both of them. A coach from another team was overheard telling his strapping guys, "I don't want to ever hear you complaining about lifting the robot again!"

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have only two girls on the team. They are both in the PR/Chairman groups. They don't build the robot so much as organize meetings and coordinate spirit.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

The fact that the girls don't do the building or heavy lifting has nothing to do with their gender so much as they made personal choices not to do those things.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Team members are going to participate in every way they can to help support the team. In '06, one of our girls did a great job at packing the trailer for travel, directing everyone in how she wanted it loaded. That was not all she did by any means, but she was the first girl to take on that job and since I haul the trailer, I appreciated her sound decisions.

in '07 and '08, our student leader has been an excellent role model for new members in showing them that there comes a point when gender just doesn't matter in what a team member can contribute on a robotics team. She is physically one of the smallest members of the team, but she is one of the most robust in her attitude and in her actions.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I think that is true. From my experience a lot of girls out there dont think that they have the potential to do something "manly" or equal to the other gender. So they stick to the "women" work and all that has to do with the cheering, I personally know that that is important it helps the team communicate with their community.
Me personally I try to do everything during robotics building season. During last years season I was using machines and milling pices of metal and working the "dirty" work.
I think that girls should put themselves more out there, their just as tough as the other gender. But yet again, now that I think of it, it is their choice. :)

Just thought I'd make a point.:D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We had 1 girl last year who was doing the "dirty" mechanical work and 2 girls who did the decoration and painting.

This year we have about the same number of girls on our team.One will be helping with the construction of the arena for training and the others will do the painting, cheerleading and such.

And that's about it as to team 2217 :)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have more girls this year, freshmen, as the Junior Girls in robotics were in it before.

Lets see...

One's on the build team and works in the shop (although she isn't trained on the machines, so we don't let her use them, but then again there's like three people who ARE allowed to use them sans mentors). She's one of the most useful people I've met. She gets the job done when it needs to be without griping (unlike some of her classmates).

Another one helps write out plans and organize stuff and whatnot. Also extremely useful. She made our numerous rules binders, and if I'm not mistaken, she also alphabetized our sign-in binders. And her handwriting is tooooooons better than the chicken-scratch you see from most of us.


There's one or three more, but they're not hugely notable simply because we have so many people that very few of us do a ton of work, it's usually pretty well distributed, especially outside of the shop. In the shop... towards 5pm or so people start dropping out for the day and the workload gets less distributed -- that's also the time that a lot of stuff gets done... hmm.


anywho, I'm rambling and I'm in science class so I should stop posting on delphi (and looking at dial calipers) and get back to work.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

On 1072, two of the officers are girls -- I'm captain, formerly of mechanical, as is our secretary.

There's also a programmer, and several more on PR and mechanical. Gender differences aren't really an issue, I think, even though less girls join.

We also have an...interesting afterschool bathroom policy.

Guy above me: We're making new buttons this year. You coming to Davis? Eh, I need to get a new dial caliper too.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I should be going to davis, yeh. Last year I was the guy with the sweatshirt that had the front covered in buttons and the back on my shoulders covered in 1351 buttons (the turquoise ones). Also, new 1072 buttons!? PREPOSTEROUS.

Our team is pretty unbaised -- we let anybody join on the premesis that they get work done -- otherwise they're just a waste of space. Race and gender don't matter here (although our school is a largely white/male school, which is a shame really, because a little diversity does a school good). It just so happens that the majority of the people interested in doing robotics at our school are male.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

While girls are a minority on my team, the difference isn't staggering by any means. I'd say it is about 2/3 guys, 1/3 girls; so it is a noticeable difference, but not as bad as some teams. Pretty much any job can and is done by anyone, regardless of gender; we have female and male drivers, coaches, human players, PR types, builders, etc. I think the majority of the girls are in PR, but that isn't really saying much because the majority of the team is in PR.

That actually worries me a bit. Unless you are utilizing hyperbole, it seems to me that having someone carry more than half their body weight around is probably not a good idea. That's almost like me carrying the entire robot around (sans battery+bumpers) by myself, which is something I would never dream of doing.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Once the girls start getting involved in the team, they continue to help the program develop and grow, showing that girls are welcome on the team and are valued as team members. Not too very long ago we had 1 female, then 4. My last count at the beginning of December was 17 but we may have more now. Once girls' involvement starts, it grows and develops naturally. Along with that, our veteran team members are mentoring new members as they come in, so that the cycle of entering and leaving the team doesn't impact the efficiency and knowledge base of of the team. We have worked on developing this stability over the past few years.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Hi,

We have one girl who is involved in actual build, one who is our business manager, and one who is what could be termed "project manager". Basically shes in charge of everything. They all play important roles and its great to have them on our team.

~Setsanto

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 2 girls on our 10 person team, and we try to do a little of everything.
Heavy lifting's no problem :D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I think about seven out of seventeen people on our team are girls. Most of them do the leadership stuffs (I'm not sure if there are any guys doing that), but we've got one who does some programming. Unfortunately, I think she's the only one who gets out of all the paperwork.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

The count for this year is 12 girls out of 33 students, the number of girls has doubled this year!

build:7 of 15
business:3 of 4
media:1 of 3
special projects: 1 of 3
programming, 12 volt systems, and advanced electrical: 0 of 8

I guess we are kind of weak from a programming and electrical perspective but other than that, there is a girl in every subteam.