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Originally Posted by ZipTie3182
Thanks for the responses everyone! For those of you who participated in FLL as well as FRC/FTC could you comment on the gender distribution between the two? Especially if your FLL team fed into your FTC team. I am interested to see if there is a trend at that "critical point" where girls tend to drop out of STEM activities.
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My first year of FLL there were about as many girls on the team as boys. The next year I was one of 3 girls on a team of about 13. My first year of FTC I was the only girl on a team of 11. The next year I was one of 2 girls on a team of 10. When I started FRC last year there were 19 boys and 9 girls on the team.
Our team has coached and mentored several all-girl teams in the past. Most of the FLL teams last year had a mix of girls and boys. A few of the guys I made friends with in FLL and FTC stayed in the program and are with me on our team now. None of the girls I made friends with in FLL or FTC went on to join the FRC team (although they were one or two years younger than me).
I think most girls start to drop out around junior high. I know I was heavily pressured by my "friends" I met in junior high to drop out of robotics and start "acting like a girl." I valued the friends I made on my team more than the friends who were telling me that robotics was a waste of time.