hummmmm........
 

I being a girl trying to work in a shop full of guys isn't always easy. I hate to "sterotype," but yes I'm a preppy nerd ( hair highlighted, nails done, and my safty glasses have glitter on them). I still however dig in and get paint up to my elbows, grease on my nose, and seem to be able to jump around the playing field with a smile. FIRST shouldn't be a boy dominated program we need to prmote that girls have an equal oppertunity as well as boys. I personally have more knowledge then some of the guys on the team, of course I've been on the team alot longer as well!! I just hope the girls that are on FIRST teams take advantage of the expirence they are getting and take that into the male dominated workforce and prosper in doing so.

<3

Shelley

I'm not the only one!!
 

I'm feeling very glad that I am not the only girl out there that knows their way around the shop. I just hope that everyother girl out there on a FIRST team steps up and doesn't let the guys tell them they can't do something. I'm the kinda person that if you tell me, " you can't," I will stop at nothing to prove you wrong. I think there is always a place to be a girlie girl and then there is a place to learn about science and technology.

Are there actually teams out there that tell the girls involved to sit down like you said? Please, all girls post how the guys on the team treat you?!? Do they think they are superior because they are males?? Does your team discourage inter team or different team dating??

Just wondering what some teams out there do with some of these things. The girls on my team are just as much involved with everything as the guys. They are able to learn how to use all the equitment and help in design and build of the robots. The guys will always tease me from me team....( I'm only 5' tall and I can never reach anything I need to use!!) The guys on my team actually don't think they are better, if I don't understand something they are willing to jump in and try to explain things, or if there is something I need help with they come to my rescue. They may laugh or tease but in the end we all work together. There are a few couples that are on the team and our team leaders have never said anything about our personal lives as long as we keep them that personal. When your working on robotics your working on robotics.......end of story!!


Shelley

Re: I'm not the only one!!
 

I'm a male, so may I post this?

This year we have an female exchange student, from Italy, on our team. She definitely knows her way around a machine shop. She shows the guys a thing or two or three about how to operate a lathe, drill, band saw or mill. She is definitely an asset to the team.
I feel that if the girls want to work in the shop, more power to them.

Wayne Doenges

Screw male chauvinism

girls...
 

Coming from a team thats mostly girls...(17girls, 7 boys), we dont relly see that much of harassment...we joke about the whole thing with the boys a little, but thats about it... Any and all girls in FIRST...join RCU...all it is is the girls is FIRST and it provides an easy way of communication...visit www.rcuweb.org

I dont really think that girls on my team get treated badly at cmpetitions in any wa.y, but i would have to credit that to the fct that everyone on the team knows basically everything about the robot, and everone had a hand in building it. Its a geat feeling when an judge or someone from another team can came up to any of our team memers and have all of their questions answered completely. :D

Sounds Good!!
 

I too...am guy....

Our team only has 1 girls total out of 15 total students. And then we only have 2 girls that are non-administrative mentors. But anyways, our team really works hard to get everyone involved. A lot of people we have that come in, guys and girls, don't even know how to use a portable drill. We try very hard to get all these people involved and to teach them their way around the shop. By the end of this program, I hope that every one of our students know their way around the shop.

It makes me sad that we can only get this many girls to join our team. The two female college mentors are both veterans of FIRST and they get right in there. For some reason the girls just don't even give the program a thought. Maybe it doesn't help that our school system doesn't really support the program either.

On the other hand, the other team I mentor (825) is pretty evenly divided. I'm kinda curious how things will go when building really starts. At least one of the girls is one of the "Captains" of the team. She really gets in there, even though she admits she doesn't know much about mechanics and building. She wants to learn. And nobody on that team discourages the girls to get in there. Well, at least not that I've seen.

Sometimes people make me want to kick them really really hard in the shins.

I'm not making any sense any more...so if none of this made any sense then, I agree.

i know the feeling, being the only girl on the team, its been hard because all the guys around me stereotype me all the time.

Oh wait.

hehe.... i wish we had girls on my team.

Oh wait. (suddenly remembers his sister when she's running after him with a spatula)

Hmm, maybe it's a blessing in disguise? Ahh well.

-anton

Well, I had some bad experiences with guys not thinking that girls were as competent as they were. NOT TRUE! girls, in general are more rational and can see the big picture better than guys can. But this is from personal experience, so if its not true, then ignore... but you guys who are guilty of this, don't do it.

ARHHHHHHHHH

hehe, my team has like no girls.. i would like to see more girls on it, but its prolly not gonna happen. btw rational isnt always a good thing, im my opinion. :D my problem is quite the oppisite, alot of girls at my school would act as if thier opinion was better based on their gender. ehh... i know not all girls are like this, i just dont like sexist girls. anyway, sorry if i offended!

Yeah, you gotta worry about that reverse sexism. Some of us can be sensitive and compationate and cry at movies....wait. Maybe I've gone too far....

ADAM! STOP RIGHT NOW! You are about to give away all our secrets! Next thing you know, you will be telling them that when someone says something mean to us, we like to sit on the couch wrapped in a comforter and eat a half-gallon of chocolate ice cream while watching Oprah!

-dave (throwing his club back on his shoulder, and skulking off to his cave, where he can scratch and beltch in comfort...)

GIRLS!!!!!
 

Girls need a robot like a watch needs a battery. (What do you mean we don't wind them anymore???)


I mentor the electronics on our team and I make no distinctions... and girls shouldn't either... having been in electronics for 30 years before I became a writer, I realised that girls, (ladies, women... ) proved to be equal to the task of electronics and computers, time and time again. It's time to drop the idea that a female in a robotics competition is some kind of anomaly. That thinking is about 40 years old. If you're a girl and you want to do electronics, but afraid you might not get a fair shake, join our team! I suspect however, that talent is appreciated whereever it is. At least, it should be.


Best wishes


Steve Alaniz



"Sure those robots are cool, but of you can't play Nintendi on them, what ggod are they?" = Hilary Forth

WoW!!
 

Adam..... do guys actually do those things?!? :o) ha ha ha

Okay, I'll ber serious for alittle while. I was curious as to what the other girls arond the FIRST teams are treated like, by their counterparts. Now I have another question to through into the mix of things. How does the other people in your school treat you, knowing you are on your schools robotics team?

Like I have said before, my school ins't known for achademic achivement, but rather being able to run a football or shoot a hoop or run the distance. When our robotics team wears our shirts and things to school, they all look in amazement that a girll can be on robotics. I think this year there are like 15-20 girls on our 75 member roster, there were only a handful that have been around since their freshman year. No one can believe that a girl was smart enough to join the robotics team, eventhough I carry an above average gpa. It also doesn't help that I go to a Public City School, where the drop out rate is overwheelming, drugs are there, and the number of teenagers that have not one not twobut three or more kids and they are only 17. Our program has brought alot of things to our school, and people have noticed and that is why our roster is carrying 75 right now. There is something good happening there besides an athletic game!!


Shelley