[Carolyn_Grace]

I'm fascinated by this comic, as it assumes that the roles are created because of outside influences, instead of how each child is themselves. It's taking a stance that the reason there are not as many women in engineering is because they are treated differently as children and given different toys, and while I realize this is the case in some situations still, I think that on a large scale this concept is going out of style, at least in the United States.

For example: I teach preschool, in an middle-upper class area in Michigan. My classroom is full of 4-5 year olds. We have quite the toy choices in our rooms, and we never tell the children what they can and cannot play with baised on their gender. And we never suggest to a child that they may like a specific toy, based on their gender. And yet, 90% of the time the boys play in the block area and the girls are in the art area.

Interestingly enough, the LEGOs seems to get the most play out of everything, from both boys and girls. The difference in their play: boys build rocket ships and robots and UFOs, while the girls build houses, hotels and zoos.

From my own experience: I grew up as big a "tomboy" as they come: running barefoot through the woods, jumping in puddles, building towers with scraps of wood and smashing them down to see what happens, playing baseball and kickball and football in the street. My parents gave me trucks for my birthdays along with My Little Ponies. And still, I grew up to be more of a literary person than a math person. Perhaps if I would have had a better math teacher in middle school the outcome would have been different, but maybe not.

I'm not sure we can point to any one thing that would make more girls consider engineering as a career...but FIRST is definitely a start. As another mentor on our team has said: it's okay if you graduate from our program and decide to persure a career outside science, math and technology...as long as you learned something and can handle tools and know how to figure things out without your spouse needing to handle it all for you.