[rhoads2234]

Ok i am responing to a lot of quotes so bear with me....

Originally Posted by Temper Metal

I wanted to throw in the dynamic to you girls who do not like to be given special treatment. If you were given a full ride because you were a girl engineer, would you accept it?

I probably would but if I found out it was solely to up the schools ratio of girls to boys or just because I am a girl I would be furious. I would take the scholarship no matter what and prove that girls do the exact same things as guys do. At school, there is an ultimite(sp) frisbee club in the winter and I make sure that they don't see me as some girl doing because I felt like signing up for it but because I love to play and I make sure that they pick me by running almost constantly. Other girl who do frisbee often get put down because they and not passed to and they think it is because they are girls but it is because they don't work hard.

Originally Posted by lenergyrlah

I am a senior & this is my first year doing FIRST because I hadn't heard about it before. This year our team has 13 students & 4 are girls.

I know that our team is small & so my experiences may be a little skewed but our team basically let everyone do what they're best at. Now we have a small team so everyone helps build the robot to some extent. But in general i noticed that most of the girls on the team spent a little more time on the less-mechanical side of the team -- artwork, making pins, fundraising, etc. some more than others.

Now I am an entirely different story. I am not at all into artwork and I hate fundraising (even though I've done it). I love doing mechanical stuff, so I was put in charge of building our ramp (which BTW is really cool -- it's made out of aircraft flooring, it is pneumatic, & it's double-jointed so we have a shallow ramp for 12" & are still only 4 ft. tall). And then other stuff I just kind of did because nobody else was doing it (rules expert and scout captain), so I am also one of our tactitians/coaches.

Occasionally some of our team would joke about all the other girls making pins & me testing a ramp. But I don't feel "non-girly" because I'm covered in aluminum dust & have loctite all over my hands. I'm just having fun doing what I like. & if there's anyone else on our team who is better at doing whatever I'm doing I'll let them.

that is excatly how I feel, the girls on our team are afriad of offending the guys so they won't do anything. I do not have that fear and I think that guys when they play around purposfully offend oneanother. For those reasons I have no problem snd saying things like "let me work on that too" or"Do you have anything for me to do?"

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

Honestly, my view on this is the same as my view on most differentiation: I'll give the job to whoever's competant.

I love to see girls pursuing careers that have not historically been available or encouraged for them, if that's what the enjoy and want to do. But I'm not going to shove a woman into a career that she doesn't want, or tell her that she can't do something that she wants to do, just because she is female.

As many people probably know, I am the queen of defying the "can't be done's". I have done everything in my power never to take extra scholarships, etc, just because I am a woman. I don't believe in it. We are all humans. When a job needs to be done, then the best human for the job should take it (yes, I am discriminating against bears, dogs and other animals).

If the situation exists where you are being told that you are not allowed to do something because you are female, then obviously you need to fight the system. But I find that to be very infrequent these days. A woman in engineering is unexpected, but not out of the ordinary. People may be surprised, but most won't fight it.

So congratulations to all of the humans, male and female, who are pursuing careers in and enjoy doing engineering.

I agree - whoever is most capable to do a job should do it, regardless of wheter they are male or female.

Originally Posted by RAWRimaPANDA

[2 cents]

Here is my opinion. ( switching off from point to point)

In engineering, sciences, etc. the reality is, they aren't many females out there. Why? Many reasons ranging from lack of interest or lack of exposure. Is it honestly bad to praise the few that are?

I do understand what you meant when you said that you didn't need the boys to step aside or give you special priveledges to work, because that is how it is for me on my team as well. I didn't go off and complan about not being given the oppurtunity, I walked into the shop and I watched and learned.
But again, you must note that there ARE teams out there out of the thousands that seem to push the girls away. Sometimes the girls are just shunned from the actual build and design.

As for "special treatment" for the women in engineering. It could be possible that scholarships meant for female engineers are there to encourage MORE females to go into the fields. It shows that there is appreciation and support for more female involvement in these subjects.
But when it comes to situations where the female is given the scholarship in oppose to a male just because of her gender, then yes I see a point there.

Overall, just note that sometimes praising female engineers isn't more of a "OMG A GIRL IS MACHINING!?" but more of a "That's good that more females are starting to grow an interest in engineering".

[/2 cents]

When guys(the students) step aside to let the girls do something they almost seem mocking and make the job seem really bad or not worth doing, I would prefer that they do it with the girl or find a way to keep everyone busy