[Chief Hedgehog]

I understand the sentiments laid out by the OP. However, I do value the options of having events such as IndyRAGE to encourage females to take on roles that are not typically set aside for them.

FRC 4607 has a fairly large female segment (~40/60 this last season), and yet it is like pulling teeth to get some of the girls into the programming/fabrication side of things.

Part of this is our collective issues with societal/cultural differences or perceived 'gender appropriations'. Another aspect is the lack of female mentors in these areas. We (4607) do try to include/encourage females into these areas - but even then they are subjugated (unwittingly) to meaningful tasks that demean these girls; i.e "take notes on this because you have better hand-writing". This drives me nuts.

My concern this coming season is to get more females to transition from our Marketing/Business squads to the fabrication/design squads. In fact, one of our best fabricators this last season was a female. And she commanded respect from the males in the lab - because she was one of the best fabricators we have ever had.

But I will state this - even as good as she was, she took a lot of crap. Not from the fabrication squad (don't get me wrong, she took some ribbing from the guys, but it was in a situation where she was able to give it back - and she had fun with it), but from the other females on the team. In fact, it got to a point that she wanted to quit because of her excelling amongst the boys. Again, not from the boys, but from the other females. After a very long talk, she decided to continue with the team. How can we prevent this type of female vs female bullying?

Well, this is why we need these types of events - so that females can showcase their worth amongst their female peers. And so that other females can see that success in these fields are not only possible, but so that they can gain confidence. And that girls such as the aforementioned can gain POSITIVE notoriety amongst her peers.

Just my 2 cents.