Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
On the same token, it is a lot easier to subtly and unconsciously pressure women into not pursing engineering than it is to do the opposite. In the limited context of a FIRST team, how many robotics team leaders honestly believe they do nothing to dissuade women from joining any build team, but still end up with male dominated subgroups, all of the women brushed aside into Chairman's or safety work?
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I'm sure that very few believe it, but very few of them would admit to it. On a somewhat related note, I attended a mentor/leadership dinner last spring, with some very highly esteemed and reputable mentors (not just from my team). They were all very shocked when they found out that I was active on the build team, was a sub-group leader, and was due to be a team captain for the next year. I was very annoyed when, earlier during the dinner, they referred to their Chairman's team as "the girls".
I'm sure that I've stated this before, in this thread or another, but I place a huge chunk of the "blame" on the media and marketing personell, who seem to still be stuck in the age-old "women belong in the kitchen" mindset. While the media IS slowly changing, many young girls only see icons that are famous for their voice, their looks, or their performance on the screen. Many shows for young kids still portray women as secretaries and men as doctors and construction workers (nevermind engineers - children see so few of those anyways).