I wouldn’t say that there’s a lack of girls in FIRST. I attended a meeting with Paul Shay a month ago and he reported that 30% of FIRST students were female. Indeed, he hopes for 50%, but lets stop there. Don’t let FIRST turn into industry where there is reverse discrimination for the Caucasian male (they are people with feelings too).
If women wanted true equality we wouldn’t need a special club to achieve it. Being a minority is not an excuse for obtaining extra attention. Everybody in general should go out, get educated, try new things, test themselves, and they’ll be certain that they were hired for their ability and not because they have met a quota for a team or company. There shouldn’t be any handouts. The idea of fighting discrimination is to give the most qualified person the job no matter of race, color, or gender. That concept has been achieved; however, the scale has been tipped too far in the opposite direction (this is highly noticeable when entering college and/or looking for jobs).
Do any FIRST teams deny access for students of non-minority groups? I certainly hope not. FIRST is about inspiring High School Students, not girls and minorities exclusively. Teams should have open arms to any student who wishes to join and there are plenty of girls who do find their way onto a team. In general, I believe that high school is too late to get girls interested in science and technology unless they have some kind of lingering desire already inside them. If we wanted more girls who were really into building robots, we’d have to find a way to start young. It would seriously have to be a cultural infusion, which won’t happen easily. So, lets stop trying to use cunning to trick every girl into wanting to build robots and just make sure that every student at the school, town, or general area know that they have an option to join a FIRST team with open arms. A brilliant mind is a brilliant mind, and it doesn’t matter what race or gender has the ability to make a positive difference in this world. We need each and every one of them to contribute to society no matter how the percentages break down.
My basic point being: some people (not all, I do know many smart women & minorities who do fantastically well in school and work) take advantage of affirmative action instead of going out and educating themselves. In some situations it has gotten out of hand.
erin
p.s. CEO and Chairman of HP, Carly Fiorina, was ousted last week.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/15/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes