As a potential sponsor of an All-Girls FLL team I think this statement is a generalization. I think there are plenty of sponsors who may make that decision for the right reasons. They realize they don't have the diversity they want in their recruiting, so they reach deeper, to a point where they can impact the pool of potential hires available. They wish to get more girls more hands on time, and get more girls into the STEM pipeline. I think this can be the case, and is in the case of the sponsorship that I offered.
However, I have seen the mar diversity can place on a corporation. I was a college recruiter for several years (for my engineering group), and we were told that if we recruited 40% minorities overall, we would get a bonus. To me, it was a very very dumb rule. I wasn't going to hire a female just because I would get a bonus. I was going to have to work with that female, and if she couldn't do the job as well as the male, I'm sorry, but I would rather hire the male. Now if I had two candidates that were exactly/nearly equal, I would hire the female, but any recruiter knows candidates NEVER come out exactly equal. I interviewed plenty of women who it was unfortunately painfully clear that others had "carried" them through their classes, or teachers perhaps had just given them passing grades.
See... I don't know... having gone through all of this myself, I am not convinced that there is ever a "right place" or "right time" to be exposed to the discriminations we do faces as female engineers. Here's what I tell a lot of people about being a girl going into engineering...
Is it EASY to be a Female in Engineering?
1. Yes. Its EASIER to get into college. Engineering colleges strive for diversity. I joke that I probably got "the female scholarship" even though none of my scholarships specifically said that.
2. No. It SUCKS being a female engineer in college. You face professors that don't think women should be engineers. You face boys that don't think you would make a good lab partner because you are a girl. You face a room of 64 men as the only female because you chose the electrical/computer engineering department. It SUCKS. Sure there are the girls that get all the starry eyed boys to do all the work for them, but that doesn't lead to a real education in my mind.
3. Yes. Getting a job out of college IS easier as a girl. I guarantee I got a few extra interviews BECAUSE the name on my resume was female. I wont deny that. I like to think the job offers I got, I got on my merits & accomplishments, but I wont pretend that my resume with a 3.3 GPA was any more impressive than some of my male friends with 3.5's that didnt get an interview. I had the most job offers of any of the Electrical/Computer engineers graduating from Clarkson my year... however, I attribute that to my THIRTY on campus interviews, not my gender. Sometimes girls just work harder
4. No. Being a female in engineering ISNT easy. My first internship, there was a guy who didnt want to work with me or give me the time of day because he didnt think female engineers were smart enough. I hit heads with plenty of old engineers that thought the same. I also encountered several female interns/engineers that were clearly "giving us a bad name" as they always let the guys do the work for them. Its frustrating to see these girls that have/had so much potential just give in to society and use their gender to more advantage than their brain. It aggravates me to no end.
I completely agree with this, and I think up until seeing the panel last year, I was on the same exact thought process. But these "FIRST Rock Stars" have kids asking for their autographs, they are sought out at competitions, they are the Idols that Dean & Woodie were hoping would come out of this program... yet not a single female among the ranks. Im far from caring if I or anyone I know is THAT female rock star, as as you state, I know the impact I have made. I've seen it in all that 229 & 1511 have accomplished, in their alumni who email me with their latest accomplishments or ask me for recommendations... yet I still want SOMEONE to be that female rock star, the one that we can all see up on those pedestals alongside all the males. Some teams are fortunate to have female mentors like that, but for those that don't, I want there to be a female Rock Star for all those girls to look up to. To know that they can succeed and wont be pushed out in college or once they enter their career. To know its possible.