Re: Girls on Teams
 

on the river city robotics are captain was a senior gril and so was our photographer

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I agree with you 100%, I'm a mentor for animation and website design for team 590, all of our team members are Native American, so to us its just a matter of what the team needs to accomplish. We see each other as equals(mostly)whether a veteran or new member, and enjoy the competition for what it is. Normally we have 4-8 girls but we don't see it that way:) :) :)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have three girls on 1923. Out of roughly 10 students.
One of them, Amy, is brand-brand new, but has expressed an interest in mechanical/electrical, but at the same time is very artistic. She's going to be very valuable to the team. :)

Katie (Horsegirrl on CD) is our Spirit Captain, and definitely the most energetic person on the team. Originally I had made her join because I felt awkward as the only girl (at the time.) She and her dad fell in love with FIRST. She's very busy, that same dad owns a barn with 17 horses (hence, Horsegirrl), so she's not as active of a member, but without her 1923 would just be a group of kids sitting quietly in the stands (and one very loud driver...:o )

The final girl on 1923, of course, would be me. I started the team in my freshman year, simply because our school didn't have one. I've been going to FIRST events with my dad since I was a little kid, and I couldn't imagine being in high school and actually having FREE TIME between January and March. I'd like to think I do a lot, but you'd probably have to ask my mentor.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We had about three - five girls out of about twelve. One helped me with media/website, the twins helped build (they really fit in and liked it), and the other did various tasks. But all of them did what they felt they wanted to do, and we didn't have any problem with girls being on the team doing what they did. Besides, with a small (or even large) team you can use all the help you can get.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

The amount of girls is constantly growing on Team RUSH 27. The year before I joined (2006 Aim High) there were 2 girls out of the 18 members. One did electrical and programming work and the other did mechanical stuff. Last year (2007 Rack n' Roll) we had 6 girls out of 26 members 5 of the girls did mechanical stuff and just 1 did business stuff. This year we have 11 girls out of the 31 members and the team lets us choose whatever position we want, programming and electrical, mechanical, inventor, or business.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I'm the only girl on my team, head of (and only) ADMIN, and Vice President.
I also hang out in the shop when admin has been taken care of to find out what's happening with the bot, and how I can help.

I've also been learning more web design from our web master. I like to learn a bit of everything.

We have about 7 people officially on the team. We will hopefully have more by next semester. . .if all the recruting works. :P

~Casey

Re: Girls on Teams
 

[off-topic] What are you doing for recruting? We started a robotics class this year, so that helps. But do you post flyers, morning announcements, etc? [/off-topic]

Re: Girls on Teams
 

on 457 we have 18 girls on a roster of 45 students

Re: Girls on Teams
 

in responce to batbotcrewfrosh comment we have 5 member 2 of them are girls. So the role for girls on our team is different to those of larger teams.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

When I joined in fall 2005, there were 4 girls of 24 students. That year, we had:

Strategy: 1
Mechanical: 1
Spirit/Fundraising: 2

This year, there are officially 16 (out of about 50), many of whom are rarely at meetings. Here's the breakdown:

Leadership: 1
Strategy: 1 (same person as leadership)
Mechanical: 2
Spirit/Fundraising: 12
Photographer: 1

I'm very disappointed by this, to be honest. By no means am I trying to say that I think spirit, fundraising, and community activities are less important or any less work than building the robot- I am well aware that they are a huge part of building a balanced and successful team. Unfortunately, the majority of my team does not seem to agree with me there. And of course it's the girls who get recruited to do these so-called "worthless" and "easy" jobs, because my team seems to think that's all the girls are capable of. I could go on about this for a long time... but in short, everyone on the team, sometimes including the girls themselves, underestimate their worth and push away from anything related to the robot itself.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have three girls of about 15 students. I am a student leader along with two other boys. I also do milling, and work on the robot. I am the teams secretary and the loudest cheerleader you will find on our team.

Another girl does programming, and organizes scouting. The other girl does most of our scouting and makes buttons and t-shirts, team image stuff.

Our girls are pretty even with doing technical work and what would be considered "girly" work. :D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Our team has about 4 (or five) girls on a team of 12

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Looks like 1025's latest headcount is

• 7 girls, 7 boys
• One female engineer, one male
• Two female teacher mentors.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we have about ten on our team and they do the same jobs as the guys minus lifting heavy stuff

Re: Girls on Teams
 

On our team we have about twenty to thirty people. Those including, nine mentors and about twenty or so students. About fifteen of the students are active, the rest are more on the cheering side. In our team we have a total of six women, three mentors and three students.

The Miczek sisters are both mentors and help on the sponsoring and the cheering.
Mrs. Leland is helping along with the Miczek sisters.
Maria Cantos is working on the programing of the robot.
Jen Rodriquez is helping with the mechanical work.
Daisy Delgado (me) I am working on the electrical part along with the drawings of the robot.

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.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have four girls on our team. One is the head of marketing with another one helping, another is the head of programming, and the last one is one of the two captains we have.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

:yikes: HELLOoooo from the North East
We have 44 students this year 11 girls and 33 boys. Some years we have been 50/50 each year is different, some times we have had more girls than boys, we have been in FIRST since 1996. GOOD LUCK TO ALL :D
SEE you Sooooooon
MOE and Team 88 TJ2

team1566
 

we have33 members on our team. with about 7 girls on our team...3 who don't show up for anything:rolleyes: .. we all do a little bit of everything...its fun

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I am really disappointed to hear this,because I believe that females should be leaders in this type field as much as men are; I believe that they should be as "scary" as the guys.

But I cannot completely say that women are not ding their part, because our team is proof of it.
Out of the 50 members in our team 19 of them are girls, including myself. And I am very proud to say that they do , if not more, the same amount of work as the boys on our team.
We have girls that have jobs from making the Scrap book to girls that take care of all the electronics! The girls on our team have learned that nothing is impossible because they are women and because society has made things how they are. They might be women on the outside, but in the inside they are as alike as a man. :)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Perhaps in the initial quote regarding being intimidated, it may be partially that and also, it may be hard for members (old and new) to take ownership of their contributions to the team.
After the new members are made to feel welcome and offered opportunities to learn, train, be a part of the team, then it is up to each of them to step up and accept the challenge of being on the team in whatever capacity they are assigned or they choose. By stepping up, they are each taking ownership. Some are timid or just don't 'get it' for a year or so. Those require patience. Some 'get it' right away and are able to work through their shyness and the intimidation factor. That is why it is so important that veteran members, both students and mentors, support the process of building a team.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we have 25 people
5 of whom are girls
one is Poj. manager
one is fundraising
and the other three including me are machinists...

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we only have a few girls and most of them are on PR. Megan biulds with us though!

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 4 girls including me, i am one of the two secretaries and the other two are very helful with the build and design. But it's fun haveing the guys scared of us, lol

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I think about 22 of our 48 member team are girls, and they are fairly dispersed across building the robot, our design/autodesk team, and our PR team.

None of them are on our programming team, but that's small with only ~5 members, so... Yeah. Hehe.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

My school didn't use to have an FRC team, but my friend and I (two girls) started the one. Our team is about 50/50 and most of the girls actually do hands on things. Several of our girls are better with tools than guys are.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have six girls out of about 35 members. Five of them machine, 1 is the documentarian/lead scout and the other does electronics!

I partake in the electrical work.

I wish we had girls in all other aspects of our team.


But we all have lots of spirit for our team, taking into consideration that the boys dont have as much energy as us girls!

GO GIRLS!!

Hehehe :]

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 2 girls on our 15ish member team. One of them is a code monkey who does a bit of electronics on the side. The other is our art genius. I taught her to solder on Saturday, and now she's in charge of soldering everything. (She's very good at it.)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Our team has about 45 members with 9 of them being girls. Presently, I am a Co-Team leader and get quite involved in our mechanical aspects as well. I do the awards submissions as well... but all the girls on my team are versatile.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

On our team, there are 4 girls (including myself), 16 total. I'm the VP, another is pretty much the head of the electronics team, the two others are pnumatics and extrenius. Last year, I was the only one, but that was because we wern't able to advertise for a while. Neat question.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we have 2 leaders, but have equal power and responsibility and normally on of them is a girl, ever since i joined we have had girl shop leaders. Except this year, there is no one shop leader. The returning members just tell the new guys what to do and make them our lackies =P.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we have a girls team and a guys team we work together and get things done so im happy we have girls they make life better for everyone :D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

There are 3 of 25 on our team are girls, and all of the girls are in different sections, i am on the shop team, one girl is on the controls and one girl is on the PR team.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Team 1073 is lacking in the female department. We have 50 students and 13 mentors. Of all those people we have only 2 female students and 3 female mentors.

The female students on the team do a lot of the business work, as well as building the bumpers. The teacher that runs the team at our school is a female, and she helps with all the different areas of the team.

We're looking for ways to improve our girl:guy ratio. Have any suggestions?

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I was at the Buckeye last year and didn't notice this problem. It might have been that I wasn't looking for it, but I certainly didn't notice. I do know 1 girl on our team who did the stereotypical secretary jobs because she knew she was the best for the job. It was not because she was a girl, it was because she was the best person suited to the job.

FYI: It is not the only job she did. She was also one of the main people on our desing team.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Over the years we've increased our guy:girl ratios.
Our rookie year we had 1 girl; now we have 10.

The software, electrical, drive train and arm team are all led by girls, and our steering committee student members are all female as well. The girls on the team are actually the most dedicated members. I, for example, lead the software team, help write and present chairmans, and show up to most of the off season events.

We really found that encouraging your friends to come to robotics really helps, as well as taking girls to any and all PR events involving younger kids. We also have FLL teams that the girls mentor, which definitly brings in girls.

The best thing is to encourage girls to come and make sure they are familiar with all the machinery. It's a little scary to show up the first day and work with all these guys who seem to have been playing with drills, hammers and saws their entire lives. We tend to float towards sterotypical female jobs because we feel most comfortable there. Make them just as comfortable with the tools as they are with writing, you'll be surprised how much they'll do. Guys are just pushier when it comes to technology and building stuff; we are no less interested.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

As a rookie team, there are 10 of us and I, the only girl. I basically am in charge of electronics and help out a lot with programming. I mean, since theres only 10 of us were all key players in the entire project.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Developing the girl/guy ratio on the team can sometimes take a while. The way to help it develop is for the girls that are members on the team to enjoy their experience. They will market and promote the team by expressing their enthusiasm.

Another way is to develop a program of recruitment and orientation at the beginning of the year, working with the school administration and teachers. Visit classes for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on what the teachers will allot you and make a presentation regarding the team and what you do. Don't just visit science and technology classes, visit liberal arts classes. That is where you will find writers and artists that will help in areas like the Chairman's, the Woodie Flowers, promotion and marketing, and spirit.

If you have any questions, PM me and I'll share our recruitment/orientation program with you.

Also, Molten's post is a wise one to think about. I'm not sure there are stereotypical jobs on FIRST teams. There may be teams made up of individuals who have that mindset but as teams develop, it becomes - who is the best person for the job.

If you have 2 or 3 or 5 girls on the team, celebrate that and help it grow. The 2008 team is not the 2007 team and won't be the 2009 team. Every year is a new year and a new opportunity for growth and development as a FIRST team. It's very cool.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

One of our Co-Presidents is a girl who is also in charge of the programming. This year we're about evenly matched in guys vs. girls who lead different sections. However, we only have about twenty people on the member list, and ten or so who show up regularly and work. One girl is really great at PR and loves to do that at competitions. Our entire team scouts when possible, and it helps that some of the parents help scout. Right now, though, we have no women mentors.

To even out the numbers between girls and guys, it helps to have enthusiastic people who aren't too insane. I think I unintentionally scare people away by being too enthusiastic. People just think I'm weird. But I take it as a compliment!

In all seriousness, advertise for spectator-friendly competitions that are nearby, maybe a team-organized off-season match. This means you aren't frantically trying to finish the robot and at the same time trying to teach someone who has trouble telling a nut from a bolt how to build the drive train. People are generally more sympathetic and patient if they aren't under incredible stress, and we've had at least one potential member leave because the (few) veterans were under stress and snapped a few times. Girl or guy, always remember that every team member is valuable.

It also helps if you bring your Robotics advertisements to places where the mainstream of the school will see and notice it. Your marketing flier might be the most awesome and eye-catching, but it will catch no eyes if there are no eyes around for it to catch.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

my team is broken down into divisions with a vice president for each.

im the vice president of mechanisms and the marshal of common sense =]

Re: Girls on Teams
 

sry none but we should my friends are grls and they r geniouses

Re: Girls on Teams
 

30 people, 4 girls.

Girl #1: Team Captain, mechanical team membr.
Girl #2: Marketing team captain, mechanical team member (me!)
Girl #3: marketing team, mechanical team secondary captain
Girl #4: Control systems/electricla team member

So... girls are 4/30 on the team and 3/10 in all leadership roles... not so shabby. And we are all engineers.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have about 10 students on our team and 2 of them are girls, one of them being our president.
It usually ends up during a meeting with a couple of the guys and the girls working on the robot while everybody else shoots the breeze. \
Then the mentors step in and say all of us haven't done anything.
But the mentors really do TOO much (control everything). :rolleyes:

Re: Girls on Teams
 

... sigh... team 2549...2 girs... like 13 total... wanted to be cheerleaders...so basically unneeded distraction...

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We only have two on the team, but one is the team leader and I (I'm on my friends account cause we're too lazy to sign out.) really just yell at people to do things and keep everything organized.
Also, I'm gonna paint our robot.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

CORRECTION... theres 4 girls...2 cheerleaders and 2 co safety captains...also one is working on mech and another on electrical...

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Our team has three girls of about twenty-four. One is a junior on electrical, and the other two are juniors (myself included) on acquistion/elevation:]

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have four girls on our team right now, three of them are rookies.

If I had a team composed of students like these four we would win the championship for sure. They are all great.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Hey-
There is three girls on our team, I do programming and I also helped out with the robot, and i'm i guess suppose to do scouting but i don't know if still am. Another girl is in charge of the scouting, and the third just comes, haha i don't know what she really does.

=D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I'm currently the only girl on my team and I am captain of the team. :)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I'm one of only technically 3 or 4 girls on my team. I know I'm new to this(I joined my freshman year w/o any experience), and now I can do drive train and assembly. I don't really care that there aren't many girls on the team; it doesn't really bother me much. Whoever is good at the job(I.E. PR, electronics, robot stuff) should do what needs to be done, whether or not your a boy or a girl.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 3 girls on team of 23. One of the girls was recommended to us by our video production teacher to help us take and compile our videos and photos. The other girl is her assistant, and is learning how to do video production. I am the third girl on the team, as well as President and Treasurer of the club and Captain of the team. I do everything from build mock ups of the field, to fill in as the robot driver, to hotel planning, and everything in between. (My father is the head advisor, so I get tossed around from group to group when people are absent. All of you who are advisor's kids will understand wht I mean :ahh: )

Re: Girls on Teams
 

funny thing is we have 2 grls on our team but they r the most helpful and we r a rookie team so we need alll the help we can get from them:D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

It seems like a number of teams have an average of two to three girls each.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

well there are only three girls on our team. and we all have active roles on working on the robot. the guys didnt want us on the "cheerleading" team, and gave us specific positions. I am a Hardware Team Lead. My other friend is part of my team, and me and her had our idea for making two levels for all the connections. The last girl is also getting dirty, drilling holes and everything. So im happy to say we dont have the role of the cheerleaders, but an actual part of the team.:)

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I thnk grls probably do more thn a guy bcuz they want to prove they can do btr guys in any situation

Re: Girls on Teams
 

It does seem like that. What will be interesting will be to have some of the teams post again in a couple of years and see how the teams have grown and how many girls have joined.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I agree, on our team there has been a tremendous amount of growth but especially with girls, 2 years ago there were 2 girls on the team, this year there are 12!!!

Re: Girls on Teams
 

On our team there are 4 girls, myself included of course. I'm in charge of the three of them though because if I don't give them things to do they really don't do anything, that or complain that I didn't give them anything to do. They don't like to be useless which is good but they rely on me for things to do.

Adena and Adara are twins, both seniors and they work on tasks that I ask them. Adara takes care of the blog so she keeps track of daily accounts. Adara helps out her sister and keeps track of things going on, and changes in what's going on with the team to tell her sister and myself.

Kiwi, a junior, she makes the logo and designs things like our shirts and posters for the team.

I'm a sophomore. I manage our website on my own, video record everything, take pictures, help out with anything our two captains need and act as a secretary for the team as well as treasurer. Last year I the awards, send out letters and this year I'm mainly too busy to do that yet but I ran an interview of our captain, Alex for our city/school's personal TV channel. I do a lot but not really machinery or programming because we've got the guys doing that, our captains are the best two guys you can find and everyone's close so they let me sleep if i'm exhausted during a practice.

The guys really baby the girls on the team. They're quite protective of us. The other girls aren't around all the time but I have to be so the guys baby me a lot more than the others. They constantly check in to make sure I'm okay and they really don't like me to be in situations where they could do something and hurt me. The guys let us do anything we want to help and they let me do what I do best and that's what I let the other girls do too.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Our team has eight girls out of twenty-four students on it.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I am not on an all girls team but I am on a team. My team has about 6 girls and I am the oldest student girl because I started and that was my teams rookie year in 2005. My team is Team 1544 the Arctic Ice Bears. Our team drink is Mountain Dew(notice the avatar).:D :cool: :yikes: :]

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Too true! We have to prove ourselves b/c guys dont believe we can. I joined this year and we have 7 girls on our team. 6 of us are new to the team. 3 are on mechanical, 2 on marketing, 1 on software, and me, the head of electrical:D

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 3 people on our entire team and we all are girls. :yikes: One of us works in programming, and one of us designing and building. One floats

Re: Girls on Teams
 

My team is an all-girls team so I can't really answer your question. And I can understand why you are upset (since I too am a girl).

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We too are a small team. Not all girls though. How are you going to handle competition? Who is going to stay in the pit as safety captain and who is going on the floor?

Good Luck...

Carolyn Hinckley

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Don't worry about that DevilsTech. Luckily our whole team (including me) is nice enough to believe the girls on our team can do very well with what they are doing for the rest of the team.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

yeah, my team is all girls as well, and its really interesting to hear about the work girls do on other teams. i think recruiting girls is important, but i also know that it comes down to the individual and their interests. on our team, though, we have plenty of girls intersted in building the robot..so maybe on co ed teams..girls are intimidated. i guess the best way to deal with it would be to have more involved female mentors....

Re: Girls on Teams
 

There are 4 girls, but it feels like 3 out of 28ish members.

I'm head electronics
Kelsey is a machinist/ cooperate image
Paige does inventor and autocad design
- all three of us doing public relations and chairman stuff
and the fourth girl is strictly a welder

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have about 3-4 girls (some never come, so I'm not sure). Although most of them DO fall into the stereotype mentioned above, there is one on our team who does actually help out with everything.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

on 1525, there are 3 girls, one on electrical / chairmans, one who floats and helps wherever needed, and me. I'm big on pictures, team spirit, and i learned the mill this year. This is my third year, and the guy on my team are still quite sexist. I took a welding class this summer to try and prove *yes i felt it necessary to prove myself* that I could help out, but the guys won't let me weld. Our welder is self taught and truthfully, is not perfect. I respect him and I believe that he does a good job, but he constantly puts me down and I'm quite sick of it. But I deal and I just try to help anyone that needs it.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions on getting rid of the sexism because our mentor doesn't seem very motivated to do anythying about it.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I'm guessing that your mentor is male, here. Try talking to your mentor and telling him that you do not appreciate his apathy. Apparently this mentor has lost sight of FIRST and most of what FIRST stands for- building the team. It stands for many other things as well, don't get me wrong, but this is most pertinent to the matter at hand.

Whether a team member is a guy or a girl makes no difference. The important thing is to ensure that each learns and becomes competent as well as inspired, leaving gender out of the equation. If a member of the team is being pushed down by other members, what does that make the team? As part of the Gracious and Professional organization that is FIRST, every team should be taking care of their own people, for it is the people which make up the team.

As for the boys, tell them that you do not appreciate it. This isn't a joke, and being FIRSTers, they ought to know better. These boys should know that you are capable, and should allow your competence to assist the team, instead of cutting off a vital resource.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Yeah, I know precisely what you mean. My dad is the coach of our team.

We have no girls(- two mentors) on the team right now, but it is an issue that we are trying avoid by next year.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have 6 guys and 1 gal on our (FTC) team. The gal is the head programmer and a builder. The 2 mentors are male and female (myself). He takes care of food, room, and school administration, and I handle the robotic aspects and FIRST administration.

I have noticed some frustration about the treatment of women in engineering in this thread. Having been immersed in STEM (sci/tech/engineering/math) since HS/college in the late '70s and early 80's (ouch, that's 30+ years!), I wanted to offer my perspective and encouragement to younger women.

No doubt, life in STEM is not always easy for women, and I have experienced prejudice and disrespect in some predominantly male school and work environments. But alongside that, I have found other men who were encouraging, and some who bent over backwards to assist me because I was a woman. It's your choice to focus on the voices that bring you down or the ones that bring you up. If you need help, ask for it. In the rare situation when there are no encouraging voices, I have always found that a job well done is the most effective way to silence the scoffers -- good work speaks for itself.

One important aspect of gaining respect is knowing yourself and being realistic about your strengths and weaknesses. There are some girls who think they are being dissed for being girls, when the reality is that sometimes, they not respected because they think they are better than they are. As an EE major, I spent 60-80 hours/week to get mostly C's in EE classes, with only my math classes salvaging my GPA. I came to the realization that at best I could only be a mediocre engineer and instead went to graduate school in math, which I now teach at a junior college. There are women who are truly gifted engineers, but I'm not one of them. If you are a gifted engineer, you go girl! But if your gift is technical writing, don't let others tell you, "Girls shouldn't get stuck doing the journal." That kind of talk pushed me into an engineering degree that was unsuitable, and I had to go back to grad school to rectify it.

Women sometimes get opportunities that they wouldn’t have if they were men. When I was a senior, I receive unsolicited invitations to interview, even though I had a 3.2 GPA, while male classmates with 3.8 GPAs and more work experience were unable to beg interviews with the same companies. More currently, I know of a college that offers 2 engineering scholarships: anyone can apply for the first scholarship but only women or underrepresented minorities can apply for the second. Women get 2 shots at a full ride, while Asian/Caucasian males only get one, with a lot less competition for the second spot. It's not as easy for talented white males to get noticed, and we do them and ourselves a disservice when we gripe about the plight of women without acknowledging their challenges as well.

Should we make use of this "unfair advantage?" As compensation for the disadvantages that sometimes come with being a woman, I feel that making judicious use of any opportunity that comes your way is fair game. Perhaps because of my gender, I have an interesting track record with interviews: I have received a job offer for every job that I've interviewed for (except for fast food jobs I was turned down for while a student). But to avoid taking advantage of the situation, I have chosen never to interview for a job unless I am genuinely interested in the position, and once hired, I aim to do the job in such a way that my employer has no regrets. This includes refusing to take a job for which I know I'm not qualified.

Life is not fair (if it were, I would take my turn at being one of the world's 3 million hungry), but it doesn't have to be fair to be good. If you find your calling and the right niche in this world, you are blessed indeed, no matter how "high" or "low" you are in relation to others.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Team 1523 been actively recruiting females to join the predominately male team.
It is starting to work. The girls are not seeking the robot captains positions ...yet, but they participate in the Robot-building, PR, Programming, Spirit, etc.

It is refreshing to see these 4-5 young ladies learn new skills without any hesitation. They are a welcome addition to the team and I look forward to the day when 1523 adds some female engineering mentors, who served on the team in HS.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Thats very sad to here that some teams that have girls that do cheerleading and sprit. On our team 904 we have 39 members and 11 females. The females are aloud to do what they would like to do. We have 4 females on build and the rest are spread out throught all the different cells. Our team is very open to let people do what they would like to help out with and we are opened mind to many things...

This year we have the most females out of 7 years.

Hope that other teams become more open to let females help with other things..

Re: Girls on Teams
 

In my school girls walk into our room as they pass by at lunch, they ask whats going on. They seem interested but once they see the number of guys they run for they get intimidated and we never see them again. :( :( :(

Re: Girls on Teams
 

If they are coming by at lunch, that is a positive, they are showing interest. Use that to your advantage. Think about going to find them during lunch or before school and ask them to come help with a specific job. Have one in mind.

Something like, 'hey, I saw you stop by and wondered if you would be interested in helping with this, this, or this?' Give them a job that you need done but that won't make a big demand on them or their time - just something to catch their interest.

Or - if you have a part of your robot working that you guys are excited about, ask them if they would like to stop by and see what the team has just been working on. Explain what it does and what you did to help.

If they don't show interest or don't want to, at least you have made an effort to show them that they are welcome. Some times it is very small steps that lead up to achievement.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We started an all girls team this year. We ended up having 3 girls on the team and us guys have taught them alot. Now they are pretty much doing it all on their own!

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Is there some simple robotic task (~15-20 minutes) like a simple model to build (with easy step-by-step instructions) or something on the computer that could captivate their attention and keep them in the room? They're more likely to forget their discomfort of being outnumbered if they feel successful in doing a task.

Our one girl was snagged when she came to my house & was captivated by my son's LEGO RIS kit. She started the tutorial, 2 hours later, convinced her mom to start an FLL team, and has now graduated to our HS Vex team.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

I am the only girl on the team... Half the guys are Jerks and do squat... They sit and watch as I carry all the supplies and the robot back and forth... but then again... I am the one who is always knowing what is going on and get to tell them what they should do ^_^ so I guess it all evens out in the end...

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Is your team successful in competition?

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Water Bandit23, I got your PM with questions, but your account is blocked for PM's or e-mail. E-mail me, and I'll send a reply.

Yolande

Re: Girls on Teams
 

We have three girls that are all Juniors in HS. Two of them are on a marketing team trying to raise money, the other one tries to do stuff to help with the hardware ... but usually (no offense to girls in general) gets in the way and slows us down when others are trying to work.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Team RUSH is a great advocate of women in engineering. We have 32 members and approximately 1/3 are girls (not sure of the exact #). They have a variety of roles and do things just like the guys. Although there are some interested in business oriented skills, we have many females interested (and quite capable) of mechanical work.

As of now, engineering is a man's world (not to be sexist), but I know FIRST has had an impact and definitely inspired many women to become engineers, I just hope that all teams can gain the interest by girls that Team RUSH has been able to generate.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

Good job! I'm certain that leads to a better team and better people in general. Women are just as capable, but usually not as loud about it as men.

Well, then, let's make it an equal opportunity field and remove the glass ceiling! M. Krass said excellently in a post earlier this thread that as an unspoken rule, men are able to try and try again without ridicule, while women tend to be discouraged from trying again after failing. Let's all make sure that women have the same opportunities to try and try again, since no one likes being pushed down for not being perfect on the first attempt.

Re: Girls on Teams
 

we have 4 girls on our team, including me. 2 of the girls are doing design and two are on PR and Manufacturing team. this is out of about 37 kids. It's hard to get the guys to let you do something...but they're getting better at it.