What's the gender demographic of your team leadership?

[tab1a]

Last year, my team of 45 that is only 25% female had 80% of leadership positions (mechanical lead, team captain, business lead, etc) covered by young women. This next year we are looking at nearly 100%, which I find interesting. I'm curious as to what other teams' leadership looks like.

I might add that selection for leadership positions on our team is both election and merit based, so we don't have any girls in leadership positions simply because they are girls, but because of their expertise and abilities. Thanks!

[smitikshah]

We have a pretty low demographic of girls. I was one of three girls on the team this season (around 25/30 members) and all three of us were leads (co-captain, photography lead, and mechanical (specifically drive train lead).

Next year (discounting incoming freshman), I will probably be the only girl on the team. Since freshmen aren't allowed to be leads their first year in FRC (team rules), looks like I will continue my co-captain duties, and only female leader.

Our club (more specifically our mentor) is super welcoming to any girls interested in joining the club - and trying to get some of his female students to join things like FRC and The Society of Women Engineers. Lack of females on our team is probably because of the current lack of female interest in the club. Even I initially was super intimidated before completely joining and as one of the only females on the team and I am working on changing that.

I took upon myself the responsibility of outreach, and am now working on developing Female in STEM programs where we go around and do activities normally associated with "female" interests (like making jewelry), and revolve it around STEM! This could involve learning how to cut, strip, and crimp wire, and then make wire bracelets (using anderson powerpoles to connect them). This is still in the making but hopefully by doing things like this in the community we can inspire girls to pursue STEM in high school, resulting in a higher yield of female leaders.

The future looks exciting!

[scott.smith]

Our team has not many girls (less than ten on a 55 person team), but this year they held treasurer, PR, outreach, and admin. Our president and build team manager (Vice President) were both guys.

[Brian Michell]

In 2015 our leadership was 100% female. Mostly because we only had one leader and she was the one who really got the club going. This year it was all male since the majority of our team is male. Next year is all up in the air but it looks like it will be our first coed leadership team.

[GKrotkov]

Dawgma's statistics, for those who are interested
Total Team Members*: 30
Female Team Members*: 14
Total Officers: 6
Female Officers: 4

Officer Breakdown:
Co-captain - 1 male, 1 female
Mechanical Lead - male
Programming Lead - female
Awards & Scouting - female
Public Relations - female

Drive Team:
Driver: Male
Operator: Female
Backup Driver: Male
Backup Operator: Female
Human Player: Male
Backup Human Player (yes, we did actually use this once): Male

*(who come to meetings for a reasonable amount of time)

[Madison]

It might also be interesting to learn similar information about a team's mentors.

[serenagh]

For the past two years, I've been the captain and drive coach of my primarily male FRC team. I'm a graduating senior, and our coming leadership is male (with the exception of our programming captain).
My all female FTC team has girls in all of our leadership positions, and we are heavily student run.

I suspect that high rates of female leadership in mostly-male teams, especially when those positions are decided on skill and merit has to do with the level of commitment, dedication, and passion it takes to stick out a male heavy environment in order to participate in something you love doing.

I'm also curious about female representation within drive teams. During the Einstein finals, of the 8 teams that made it (4 drivers apiece), only one (1405's human player, IIRC), was female. 1/32. This stunned me. Thoughts?

[smitikshah]

Originally Posted by serenagh

For the past two years, I've been the captain and drive coach of my primarily male FRC team. I'm a graduating senior, and our coming leadership is male (with the exception of our programming captain).
My all female FTC team has girls in all of our leadership positions, and we are heavily student run.

I suspect that high rates of female leadership in mostly-male teams, especially when those positions are decided on skill and merit has to do with the level of commitment, dedication, and passion it takes to stick out a male heavy environment in order to participate in something you love doing.

I'm also curious about female representation within drive teams. During the Einstein finals, of the 8 teams that made it (4 drivers apiece), only one (1405's human player, IIRC), was female. 1/32. This stunned me. Thoughts?

I agree with your hypothesis on why we find more female leaders on male dominated teams.

I am also this years drive coach (student drive coaches have been female as far as I know - again of pure merit) and even just attending and being on drive team for one regional the lack of females on drive team was obvious. I don't think it has anything to do with teams intentionally putting males on drive team but more so a thing of intimidation by the current abundance of males on drive team. Like I said even before I became a leader on the team I was hesitant because I thought it was super intimidating. Had I seen more girls doing the same things it may have felt a bit more inviting to me.

This might apply to drive team as well - and I think its completely subconscious.

I now have come to love being on drive team and meeting and competiting with all the new people regardless of gender.

[bmoore]

Team 2502's Breakdown:

Total Team Members: 42
Total Female Team Members: 10
Notes: As with any team, there are varying levels of commitment on an FRC team. We have seen fewer girls take on that less committed level than we do guys. I suspect that is because, in the male dominated environment, girls are more likely to just quit than to stick around on the outskirts. However, it does mean that the vast majority, if not all, of our female members are highly committed to the team.

Total Number of Leadership Positions: 11
Total Number of Females in Leadership Positions: 4
Leadership Position Breakdown:
Business Captains: both female
Engineering Captains: both male
Awards Lead: female
Outreach Lead: female
Marketing Lead: male
CAD Lead: male
Programming Lead: male
Design and Fabrication Lead: male
Strategy/Scouting Lead: male
Notes: I was honestly disappointed by the breakdown of our business leadership vs. our engineering leadership this year. There was a huge gender disparity with no engineering captain or lead positions being taken on by females. We did, however, increase our gender ratio in general team members this year, and I think that will reflect in our 2016/2017 leadership. Tomorrow we will find out for sure, but I am hoping that we will have one female and one male engineering captain. There are also several girls who were rookies this year who have told me they will be applying for engineering lead positions that will likely get them.

[Sperkowsky]

I will add to Smiti's post with our leadership from past years.

In 2015 we had 4 leadership positions 3 of them were filled by females.

In 2014 we had 4 leadership positions and none of them were filled by females.

There is also some science pointing towards Woman being better leaders.

This article talks about it a bit.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Madison

It might also be interesting to learn similar information about a team's mentors.

For the 2016 season, the CyberCards had four male mentors (three technical, one nontechnical) and five female mentors (three technical, two nontechnical).

We have not met another team with >50% female mentors - even the "all girls teams". I would love for somebody to prove me wrong!

We would love to find out similar data for other FRC teams. I'm not sure if HQ tracks mentor demographics or not; does anybody know who to contact for data?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Taylor

We would love to find out similar data for other FRC teams. I'm not sure if HQ tracks mentor demographics or not; does anybody know who to contact for data?

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.