[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Apparently now it's popular to attack all girls teams, especially if you're an adolescent male who's never been on them. Whatever happened to the "live and let live" attitude toward team organization these same posters were pushing on people every time people argue about student versus mentor built robots? Does that just go away when something you disagree with happens?

Here's what happens with girls on many, MANY FRC teams. A girl joins. This girl is intimidated by the prospect of building a robot and doesn't have the expertise the boys do. She is pushed by other team members, consciously or subconsciously, toward Chairman's, Safety, or other parts of the team that aren't engineering related. This girl is now not doing anything relating to why she joined the team and gives up. The above cycle happens on so many teams it's not even funny. When a boy joins and doesn't know about robot making, his peers welcome and teach him. When a girl joins, she has to fight for that - but the societal pressures, team pressures, and general social stigma lead her away from that.

Yes, I know there are exceptions to the above rule - usually very independent, strong willed girls. But this does happen, a lot.

What all girls teams do is eliminate all of that. The environment is suddenly not so alien. They now have to learn about the robot, because no one else is going to do it. This gives them opportunities they might not have on mixed gender teams.

So maybe this isn't how your team runs, and maybe it isn't how you want your team to run. But, as with many team styles that aren't your own - there are good reasons behind what they do, so how about you live and let live instead of criticizing someone for actually trying to address a great societal problem in an innovative way.

Personally, I have been pushing girls to try programming or something. It's great to see that one responded and I will start teaching her C++ or Java starting next week or something. The others did not want to program, but wanted to design and fabricate the drive or the next year's game piece manipulator. This year, the arm and claw was designed by an all freshman girl trio. The problem is that there aren't enough girls that join. I am nominating a girl for team captain next year fearing that I will become a dictator.