[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

This topic is not a topic that is cut and dried or black and white. I wish that it were and I wish that it would become so in my lifetime. At the rate we are moving, my lifetime will end and this will still be a topic of discussion that generates controversy.

Controversy can be very healthy and this is.

It's easy to be idealistic and say what's the big deal? Women have to work in the real world, they may as well get used to it by working on teams that include boys/men.

That's fine and dandy. Look at some of the winning teams' photos that are cropping up in CD and look at the team photos and mentor listings/descriptions on their websites. Where are the technical women mentors on the college level teams and the corporate level teams? Where are the majority of technical mentors that are women on these teams? See any?

Look around in the engineering and science classes in your high school and in your college courses and see how the numbers break down. I've talked with corporate leaders who are well aware of the lack of women in these fields and therefore, cannot hire them - because they don't exist.

How many girls actually go through the FRC program and decide on an engineering major? How many women that had their start in these robotics programs have gone on into fields of math, science, and engineering?

I welcome posts from the women who are scientists and engineers and who read CD. Share your thoughts.

Jane

I am a software engineer... and have been for more years than many of the readers and posters here have been alive. And I would like to say that I am in a quandry about the issue of all-girls teams.

Originally Posted by Molten

Even seeing an all-girls team do well at competition allows them to see girls do well once. Seeing girls on their team taking on leadership roles and doing technical work allows them to see girls do well for weeks. The girls are also going to learn they can do well at the cost of learning to assert themselves. In short, there are definite benefits to having some all-girls teams. It allows them to see how good they are while not getting pushed around. However, this is not an ideal solution. There should be a way of helping the girls without segregating.

Exactly! I would say that the best situation would be to have a co-ed team where everyone is equally respected and given equal opportunity in all aspects of the team, but I would be lying if I said that this can be expected to happen everywhere. I only wish this kind of activity had existed when I was in high school. I suspect that can be very empowering for girls to be on a team on their own where they are expected to step up and get it done rather than having to push their way in. But if they are heading into engineering they will need to deal with that at some point and need to be ready to stand on their own 2 feet.

Originally Posted by Karthik

Andy makes a list of 43 technical mentors who have had huge impacts on the engineering evolution of FRC. Every single one of them is a male. Why is that? Where are all our female rockstar engineers?

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

This provoked a lot of thought in my head... and also a little bit of hurt at first. I remember sitting at the Championship Panel presentation last year staring at all the men. It was frustrating and aggravating. I knew the answer to every question that was asked, and I was a female engineer. But I'm not a "Rock Star". Why? I have no idea really. I can talk gear ratios, battery capacities, power curves, PID loops, PWM wiring, networking, scouting statistics, rules & ranking points with anyone. But the odder thing was sitting there, knowing I knew all of that, yet I couldn't think of a single other female mentor that I knew that knew all the same. Every "involved" female mentor outside of my team that I could name was a team leader, a mom, a teacher... none were engineering mentors. Even sitting here now, I am dumbfounded to think of one. But I also think about nearly all my posts here on CD. Most have to do with organization, leadership, scouting, strategy, rules, etc... I don't do a lot of the tech-e talk here. And maybe thats what makes an FRC engineering rock star?

To my knowledge, I am the first and only female engineering mentor that our team has had. [I have been with the team for 5 years of the 13 we have been around.] But it is just the luck of the draw... some teams have access to female engineers and some do not. We must acknowledge that we are in somewhat limited supply. And I must say that it can be difficult being the only woman in conversations among the team mentors, but that is life... I face that same challenge every day at work.

But I relish the opportunity to encourage the girls on our team to get involved in the engineering aspects of the team... and also to be there for them as a woman to talk to and to celebrate or commiserate with them when they need that. And I also relish the opportunity to let the boys on the team see that a woman can be an engineer and that she often has knowledge, experience, and insight to offer. I think what I am trying to say here is that I don't need to be considered a "FIRST Rock-Star" to feel that I am making a real impact on the lives of both the young men and women that I mentor on our team. I know what I have done... the impacts that I have made. I am proud of that.

[On a side note, several of our male mentors have indicated that they often prefer working with the girls on the team because they listen and take direction better. ]

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

Thus I think an all girls team is a great way for girls to have exclusive access to all tasks and realize that they really CAN do it just as well as boys. The point isnt to exclude the boys or deny them opportunity, the point is to push the issue that arises when boys & girls mix. Now the real world is Co-ed, so to me FLL is the most appropriate place to do an all girls team. FRC should be a microcosm of the real world.

Originally Posted by Jaine Perotti

Some people have expressed worry that girls-only teams will not prepare girls to work in a mixed-gender environment. I disagree however -- my RoboCamp for Girlz helped the girls build a foundational level of confidence -- such that they had no worries about being pushed aside by the boys once they joined the co-ed team. The boys already had that foundational level of confidence just by virtue of their upbringing. The girls-only program merely served to level the playing field.

Kim and Jaine - I agree with this wholeheartedly! Who are we to decide what works best for any team? However, as others have stated I would be sad to hear of an all-girls team that was created simply to exclude the boys (ie. not from an all-girls organization or not having another co-ed or all-boys team in the area).

Originally Posted by Molten

Even seeing an all-girls team do well at competition allows them to see girls do well once. Seeing girls on their team taking on leadership roles and doing technical work allows them to see girls do well for weeks. The girls are also going to learn they can do well at the cost of learning to assert themselves. In short, there are definite benefits to having some all-girls teams. It allows them to see how good they are while not getting pushed around. However, this is not an ideal solution. There should be a way of helping the girls without segregating.

Originally Posted by SGS

On final note consider this. Before every match, my team is not announced as "3103 the team from Duchesne Academy" we are "3103 the GIRLS from Duchesne Academy" I am not ashamed to be a girl, but does it really matter if your team has girls, boys, or is co-ed? Aren't we all trying to achieve the same things?

Agreed! And... one thing that I see that truly upsets me is when an all-girls team receives an award and it is implied that the judges were impressed by what they did considering it was all girls. This is completely unacceptable either to give the award for that reason or to imply such when it is in fact not the case. If the girls are not held to the same standards as the boys, they are left feeling like they cannot measure up those standards - a ridiculous notion. And implying that the standard is different is as just as damaging. So I ask that people judge females in engineering not because they are girls but regardless of it.