Quote:
Originally Posted by Sperkowsky
Lets keep in mind that this is natural.
There are quite a few socially awkward male and females in robotics so these situations can get worse. And, the lack of females with the interest can extenuate the situation but regardless this is life.
I am not advocating for creepy behavior but normal flirting and tries at a relationship with other members or members from other teams are to be expected.
We all are high school students after all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip Arola
Yes, life sucks. That's been plain to me for years. As a mentor, you acknowledge that you don't want the students' life to suck. Great. I don't know if this is an uncharacteristically blunt post of yours, but it seems that you're far too unrealistic with what you want life to be like. There are lots of things that are bad that girls, indeed, all teenagers, even all people have to deal with.
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I thought about it for a while, and yes, I think these are two of the most potentially harmful things I have ever read on this forum. In 15 years, that is quite a feat.
What you both are saying, to your mentors, your peers, and the whole of this community, is that your personal experience and gut feeling
about an experience you haven't personally had trumps documented and researched societal bias, not to mention the experiences others HAVE had. To expect people of all genders to behave responsibly, and with respect toward other human beings, is not and will never be unrealistic. Because it does not happen 100% of the time does not mean the answer should be "deal with it".
You've made a few key mistakes here, such as:
- lumping in all females into one large group together without taking almost infinite factors into account (race, gender, height, weight, background, communication methods, invisible illnesses, etc.),
- trivializing seriously disturbing behavior toward women,
- speaking on behalf of women, all women! women everywhere! every single woman!, without discernable qualifications, and perhaps most important,
- deciding that the way women deal with situations is a woman's responsibility, but others' behavior is not
their own responsibility
This kind of thinking creates a cyclical culture of alienating women from a community and then wondering why more women don't want to join that community. Trivializing anyone's experiences - of any gender - does nothing to help but does repeat that pattern, and in this way it is harmful. Thinking like this is why women are discouraged from STEM. Thinking like this is why women don't speak up. I say that because as a student way back when, hearing/seeing my mentors or peers speaking like this would have immediately shut me off from this program. Immediately.
OP, to get back to your original question, one option is to talk with your students so that they are aware how to handle harassment. It can happen to both genders in this setting (and yes, I have witnessed it), so I encourage this to be a team discussion. Knowledge is one thing you can do to empower your students to seek help when they feel uncomfortable.
The fact that you are pondering - and listening - about how to fix this real problem is already helping. I encourage you to seek out TED Talks and research that has already been done and posted online. There is a
multitude of resources, especially that
other wise CD members have posted in the past.