There are many things that can encourage or discourage anyone to participate in any given activity, and the same is true for girls in FRC. Since everyone will be attracted (or turned away) for different reasons, it's hard to list anything specific that will help everyone. But two things that I have noted in terms of ways girls seemed to be turned away:
- The first, more obvious one is to just actively discourage them from joining, think if they join it won't be for the technical aspects, or make it a less welcoming environment for them.
- However, at least to me, another issue is programs aimed at girls (or any program trying to get more girls) simplify themselves to the point where it seems to say that girls couldn't do it otherwise.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I've never had any issues with being a girl in any STEM classes with mostly boys. I haven't felt judged or discouraged because of it, and sometimes almost feel like the boys in those classes are less judging then the girls are. My main issue is the second one, which I've experienced multiple times with STEM activities aimed at girls (outside of robotics) when I did them many years ago.
In an ideal world, everyone would be shown every subject and could pick their favorite without pressure from anyone to do one over another. That might result in a 50/50 split, or it may not. Since that is a very distant goal, my recommendations to any team trying to make members of any gender (or race, economic background, education, etc.) feel welcome are:
- Eliminate any obvious discrimination especially from the mentors
- Make the environment as open as possible
- Have workshops to teach the basic skills some members may never have learned
- Don't make prior assumptions about what someone wants to do
- Don't judge them based on what they do end up doing (note this goes both ways)
- Don't treat people differently simply based on gender or anything else (I know some girls do need more encouragement, but so do some boys. I personally treating everyone similarly, and guiding those who need additional encouragement to be able to prove to themselves they can succeed like other members is ideal. Telling someone they're always right just because they're a girl isn't much better than telling them they're always wrong just because they're a girl. Both ways say that girls are inherently less capable, although the first less directly.)
In summary: make your team open, encourage those that need it, but don't do it in a way that implies they're incapable of equally good work as other members.