[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

I get where you are coming from Jon, but I'm not sure I agree. What I've witnessed on 1678 is a strong partnership of male and female leaders in every subteam, with many female team members citing female leadership as the inspiration that encouraged them to take on larger roles as well. While I understand you threw in a "generally speaking", I don't believe our situation has to be the norm, and FRC teams shouldn't throw their hands in the air if they have little female involvement/leadership.

Mike - FRC teams can and should encourage female participation and leadership where appropriate. But the bigger problem (females interested in STEM) isn't going to be solved simply with the students who join the team. Most High Schools (with the exception of gender-exclusive schools) have a roughly 50-50 male to female ratio. Yet female representation on teams is not 50-50. We'd be lucky if we see an overall ratio of 30-70 at a given ratio. The problem is that by the time girls get to High School, way too many of them aren't interested in STEM because of a lifetime of experience with gender bias. Or they're intimidated because they don't know anything about working with power tools while the guys in their class do. Or they're afraid of going against the mold and being labeled by their peers. That's the problem I was referring to, and it's one that we can't really solve at that point. Starting earlier and changing the mindset of gender roles with regards to STEM is where we fix the problem. If we can do that, then every team will be recruiting 50-50 without even trying.