Girls in FIRST
 

Everybody: What percent of your team is comprised of females?

Girls: What do you do on your team?

In my experience, most girls at FIRST competitions are just cheerleaders or button-distributors for their teams, a slightly smaller percent do only marketing, accounting, or the like, and the smallest percent actually do robot work.

I am very interested to know, because our high school is all-female and we want to promote not only the presence but also the roles of females in FIRST.

My team has 4 girls on it out of 10. (we're trying to recruit more team members right now for next year)

Pretty much every girl is very actively involved in everything including RCU. One girl is almost all wiring. Another works on the robot and team spirit as well as scouting and paperwork. Another scouts and does some robot work. I take care of whatever isn't covered such as web work, additional scouting, some team spirit, RUR, RCU, and Lego league. We all try to recruit as well.

20 out of 34 students at the beginning it was 24 out of 38 but 4 girls left before the season began for various reasons.

Our young ladies cotribute to all facects of the X-Cats.
Drives
Laini
Jackie
Brittany

Robot arms
Rainia
Jen
Naomi (also co-spirit leader)

frame design
Lori (also human player)
Alda
Lizzie
Maggie
Ashley
Portia

Sparkies
Shannon(also in charge of designing Woddie Flowers submission)
Erica
Noy
Sakath (also in charge of co-orinating scouting)


Chairman's award
Alice

Animation
Lakyn

Website
Leetha
Vy



And that's not including the women adult mentors,two who are on the leadership team (and my wife who is unofficailly there, or at least hangs out with them all the time ).

Yes, we know you all have girls on your teams...but what do they DO? And please...team spirit doesn't count as working on the robot.

Oh, and since both of you have mentioned it...what do you mean when you say they "work on the RCU"? I thought the RCU was just like a club-thing....

Re: Girls in FIRST
 

Most (unsure exactly) of our team is girls. 1 human player, 1 special actions, 3-4 various tasks people.

I'm the offical button-passer-outter-dude [hint: I'm a guy, so yea]

Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy,
FEMBOTS is an all girls team..go team 692!!!!
wahooo!
and we do EVERYTHING
we have 29 girls on our team, and we do everything..we come up with our design, build the whole robot, and even do all of our PR stuff and cheering of course.
I was quite surprise with how much stuff our team recieved. Such as:
"oh, ur an all girls team, so where are ur engineers".. hello!!! we did everything, we had no engineers
oh, and i guess someone thought that our cheering section where cheerleaders..nope! we are the ones who built the robot, we just happen to be very spirited as well.

sry, just fuming over all this, u'd think in a FIRST competition it would be different, however there are still people out there with their mindsets. So that's enough ranting for one day. :D
hermione

6 girls including myself, that totals to 7 out of 17 on our team. chief delphi is usually a BIG group, but this year it kinda of decreased. i hope we do recruit more girls/boys.

the girls on our teams: we usually cheer, take photos of other robots, and more. i think they're kinda of secret. lOLS. =P

2002 team- 1 girl on team of 20
2003 team- 4 girls on a team of about 28 people

Lena and Shannon take pictures and notes
Jill is mechanical
and i'm electrical.

We have about 30 members on our team and 7 are girls/women.
Tiff-scouting
Me- Crate Artist, spirit team captain, Human player, RCU co-president for the west coast, and i scout and take care of the social aspect of things.
Angela- Team president/captain, actually works on the robot, helps our mentored teams with anything they need.
MaryGrace- (angela's kid sister) welded the robot frame, and is on the spirit team
Becky- team photographer
Veronica- Scouting, button passer outer
Cheryl (RedHead Jokes)- our team mom who pretty much runs the team and does PR and is our co-webmaster.(angela's mom)

I think we're a pretty well rounded team considering us girls do more than a lot of the boys on our team...*ehem*...you know who you are!!;)

My team has about 11 students, 4 of which are actually productive members. I am the only girl, and one of the 4 productive members. This year was my first, so I'm not an expert at anything, but I definitely helped.

In the pit I made sure the sprockets (sp?) on the wheels were bolted in tightly, and answered questions for scouters. If there was nothing to do I prepared the little baggies we handed out.

I'll probably organize some type of recruiting for next year, but I already have one more female member recruited for next year.

At Nationals two female judges came to our pit and were talking to us. They asked "So where are the rest of the girls on your team?" So I responded, "I'm the only one." They totally flipped out. They were so excited to hear I was the only one. They had to take a picture with me. :D

yeah, the reason i asked is we're an all girls school too. some of our osu mentors are men, but we do most everything. last year it was crazy, the disrespect we got at the chicago regional. we won an entrepreneurship award, and were actually groped in the hi-five line that was formed impromptu at the beginning of the awards ceremony. although what was more insulting was all of the people asking, "you're all girls? how did you build a robot?" we politely reminded them that there are no bolts in the small parts catalog that require a penis in order tighten them.

however, this year was much better. i think we proved ourselves in chicago last year as a respectable team. now our reputation is for educated and capable students, good robot design, and a down-to-earth attitude. thank you to all the guys who stuck up for us during our run-in with sexual harrassment, and thanks to all the girls who are strong and sensible enough to wire, code, weld, machine, etc. instead of allowing themselves to be relegated to the role of cheerleader or head of the party favor department. we don't just need more women in robotics and engineering, we need more capable women.

Hah, that's pretty funny...The not requiring a penis thing... I think that's more than awesome that there are all-girl teams our there.

Out of I think it's 60 "active" members we have 15 or so girls which is about average for my team. The girls on my team are in software, fabrication/machining, animation, and PR. In the past not many girls have worked on the robot itself, but we were really pushed this year. Hey..they even let me help wire some. :D

Which is why we didn't work just right :p

Umm...no 'ffense, but in your post I only noticed two girls that actually did WORK on the robot...I wouldn't really call that being well-rounded...

And Beth...as Kiracofe said at D&B, "If you're holding a screwdriver in one hand and a drill in the other and you wanna pick up that quarter inch drill bit..." =P

i meant that everyone does everything (boys scout and girls work on the bot)... sorry not all of the girls on my team are mechanically inclined. you don't all have to work on the robot to be a well rounded team.

If everyone worked on the robot, that certainly wouldn't be well rounded either. :)

Thank you.

in defense for RobotChickBree...

When I was on my team, I was the president...I ran the team....but i didn't build the robot at all....but i did everything else...

but there were girls that drove and built the robot this year...actually all the drivers for the team this year were girls :)

once again, thank you...our team president (a girl) is our robot controller/ co-driver <i forgot to mention that>.

Our girls have always had a hand in robot design, machining and electrical work. Unfortunately, over the years the number of girls on our team has become fewer and fewer. Last year we had seven girls, this year we had three girls and it sounds like we will only have one or two girls next year. Oh well, time to start recruiting! ;)

- Katie

Sure it can be. Everyone on our team does everything. Everyone scouts, everyone builds. I meant that on the list of girls that she gave, it didn't seem like the girls did ANYTHING on the robot...except for Angela and her sister, that is. Sorry guys, spirit team and PR does not count as doing stuff on the robot. If your team really is well rounded, at least half the girls should have hands-on experience on the robot. I realize that some girls might not want to do the mechanical parts, but then what are they THERE for? FIRST is a robotics competition, not a photography contest or a cheerleading competition :rolleyes:

:rolleyes:
*every other team has to be like my team or they're not doing it right*
*every robot has to be built without engineers building at all*
*girls don't belong at robotics*
*guys only want to do robot stuff*
*using the words MUST, SHOULD, HAVE TO*

well-rounded
adj : many-sided; "an all-around athlete"; "a well-rounded
curriculum" [syn: all-around, all-round]

from the web...

Well rounded imo means you make a choice about what you want and can involve yourself in, and to extend your horizons. Breanne has a long list of community service projects, school projects and school accomplishments. Altho she's perfectly capable of working on the robot and all the machines (which I've seen her do) she chooses to give our team her talents as a painter and pr .

Last year student George was not utilitized at all. This year I learned of his capabilities. He created our GP poster, built our website, designs our business cards...and doesn't get to many meetings cuz he too, like Breanne, has a long long list of other things he's involved in and has accomplished. George this year is a very valued robotics' team member.

Spirit team, pr...all counts as doing something for the robotics' team and if you haven't noticed, FIRST also wants websites. Why? Because it's not only about building a robot, it's about informing people, changing culture, inspiring people - including people who think they don't want to work on a robot and may someday choose to try it (and hopefully their efforts won't be unappreciated like some pr, painter, or spirit team members are).

On our team Becky's dad is a robotics' engineer, she worked on the robot, has been accepted in engineering college. Chelsea worked on the machines supporting Marygrace who was TIG welding. Michelle helped wire the control board.

You may choose to narrow the opportunities on your team to your specifications - that pr and spirit don't matter, that someone must be doing everything.

That isn't necessarily the only way to "be" a FIRST team.

so there!:D

Not at all what I said.

When did I say that? Everyone on our team is involved with pr and spirit (okay, maybe a little bit less of the latter). I understand that maybe not everyone works on the robot...but the point of this topic is to find out who DOES. Therefore, listing out occupations such as the ones that RobotChickBree did would not be considered "well-rounded" in a context like this. The points that you brought up, however, are valid, and I thank you.

See? I can be reasonable. Sometimes =P

Ah Girls . . .
 

I wished we had more girls working on our bot instead of doing animation which they did this year, because our pits would have been a lot calmer, and not quite as pushy. Having girls on the teams makes the attitude much better as the guys try and "shape up" for the ladies on the team. We only had two girls on our team, and then one of our three mentors was female as well . . . hopefully next year there will be a lot more girls on our team ( I kind of frighten them off though :))

RobotChick:

I believe the point Kaelia was trying to make was that people need to have a well-rounded team, with individual members doing many things on the team. What they do apart from robotics is not the point of the topic. Do the girls get to see all aspects of the process? And it's not all about YOUR team, as the topic seems to have gone in that direction. It is still a question addressed to the general audience on this board.

Re: Girls in FIRST
 

The topic of this thread does not distinguish working on the robot from what they do on the team...



*confused* They are responding to Kaelia. How is that making this all about Robot Chick's team? I don't understand why you aren't answering the topic about your team?

Whee for team numbers
 

She's not answering the question about her team because she's from the same team as me, and I'm from the same team as the topic creator =P

LOL, I hadn't read that before.

This is way out of control!!
 

If the girl who created this thread wanted to know how many girls work on the BOT then she should have said so. And seriously, we're lucky to have girls on our team in the first place! At least they want to use their skills (whether it be social, artistic, or mechanical) to help better the team. THAT is being well rounded. The willingness to help with whatever you are CAPABLE OF. I'm glad all of you girls have the skills to work on your bot, It's a very good thing. So you use your skills and we'll use ours.
(by the way i was only expressing my own opinion about my own team. key words "i think..." I didn't ask for you two-cents about it)
NOW, can we just drop this and get back to what the post is supposed to be about... Thank you!

Re: Whee for team numbers
 

*still confused*

I understand your entire team is made up of girls, but where have you answered the question about what each of you does on the team?

Re: Whee for team numbers
 

Just because you are on the same team as the topic creator doesn't excuse you from reading the questions and thinking about it first before you start randomly accusing others of answering the questions wrong.

The Questions said:

Everybody: What percent of your team is comprised of females?

Girls: What do you do on your team?

I don't see anything about robot in there.


Unless you get to know the team really well, don't make accusations saying that girls on other teams only do this or that. That's very unprofessional of you. The point of this question (unless I am mistaken), is to find out more about the girls on other teams. If you are going to answer for other teams, then you might as well do a post about "what I saw at the competition and here is my opinion about it".

And by the way, just because your team does things a certain way doesn't mean others have to do it like that too. There is no one right way to do things.

What is up? I am Angela's little sister, the welder. I understand where you are coming from Kaelia, but i am sure we have all heard countless number of people say that FIRST isn't all about robots. I have said that countless numbers of times to defend myself when my friends make fun of what i do. So what if not every single girl works on the bot. That is only a small part of what needs to be done. Each member finds where they fit in and can best contribute. I took a class and did my part, RobotChickBree is an amazing artist and did her part to put her talents to use. We have a kid that does graphics design, does that make him any less of a team mate, our team has to many people and to many bunting heads to be able to have everyone work on the robot. Even though we would like to have that happen, other things need to be done. It isn't only about spirit, or cheerleading as you call it. It is about publicity so we can become known and comtinue the mission of FIRST. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)

Hrmm... we have 3 girls.. all 3 of which worked on the arm diligently. They were supposed to do some pr work but never got around to it because they were busy

Almost everything on our team was done by the guys.. but then again when you have like 3 girls it would seem to have to be that way lol..

However, even tho guys did most of the work on my team( everything from most all of the bot to literature ) girls are prob. the most important people at competition. Most of the time anyone will remember a cute girl, wrather than just another guy. They are our best PR people, and the best at finding out things from other teams that the guys could never find out cuz we underestimate their sneakiness.

Ie " If you push on their right side their drivetrain tends to break or they can't turn "

lol I luv the girls I wish we could just have more of them on our team

Dan

don't hurt Kaelia!
 

please, don't attack kaelia! i know, i find it hard not to sometimes myself... if i durst, i think what she means it that we've noticed a lot of girls at competitions wearing cheerleading skirts and who are completely in the dark about what goes on in their team. we are not trying to cast doubt on the validity of fundraising, bookkeeping, or other robotics team responsibilities, but we couldn't help but notice girls in those positions in disproportionately high numbers, and those who do mechanical work, or, even more importantly, have a good mechanical understanding of their robot, are disproportionately underrepresented. we don't mean to accuse any specific teams. Rather, we just want to encourage other girls to fill any role they choose. Frankly, no one on our team can imagine choosing bookkeeping over getting covered with delrin dust or aluminum shavings while dremeling or bandsawing or something.

To answer the question i neglected earlier:
Kaelia and i think two other girls worked on controls, with two male mentors.
I and i think three other girls worked on drive train with one male mentor and one female mentor
two or three girls worked on suction cup (later becoming foot) with one male mentor
three or four girls worked on wings and sail with one male mentor and one female mentor
one girl worked on integration, bookkeeping, and other paperwork with one male mentor helping her out.
six girls worked on animation with one female mentor.
all girls besides animation worked in the machine shop. there was a lot of crossover between design teams, so almost every girl knows almost every function of the robot to some extent of detail. (with the exception again of animation. they sort of kept to themselves)

sorry i neglected that.

I wasn't attack Kaelia, of course you guys (or gals) have the girls working on the robot. You guys are an all girl team. Our team doesn't have the luxury.

my whole team is made of girls. thats almost 35 students. and only a few of our mentors arent. but then again, its an all girls school.

this is not meant for hostility. by starting this thread, i was not trying to tell girls that they have to do mechanical work. i was just trying to raise the question of where are girls working in robotics, and why? that's all. i am not trying to make my team look better than other teams because we are all-female, but i think that as someone said it, we have that luxury. Rather than trying to say we are superior because we have all girls working on the robot, I wanted to say of course we have that because we're all girls. It's not because we're better or anything, it's because of our school. We didn't even do it on purpose. We just want to talk with other girls and find out what it's like for other girls in FIRST.