Are all girl FIRST team counterproductive to the philosophy of FIRST?

[JosephC]

I'm a firm believer in FRC teams that are multi-gender. One of the main reasons being that all guy (or girl) teams are missing huge parts of what makes a FRC team different then any other high school team.

All guy teams miss out on the calming, soothing effects that girls bring to a team. And lets face it guys, Most of us wouldn't want to be in the business group or spending 4 hours a day making buttons (which mainly girls do on our team). Our team wouldn't be able to survive without one of our female members, who runs the meeting 75% of the time, and gives 105% to our team.

But then there is the other side to it. All female teams miss out on the egocentric guys who really push that robot to the max. See, this is what happens during our design stage. 2 guys end up having different ideas (say a telescopic arm or a 3 stage arm like the one 68 has right now), and both of them want the team to use their idea. So what ends up happening is the 2 males go home and spend all night doing math and making a prototype. The next day they come in and we spend the day figuring out which is right. You see, if it wasn't for their egos we would never have prototypes done so fast.

So no matter which way you turn it around, The true thing that seperates FIRST from other high school teams is the chance to do something you love, while at the same time spending time with the opposite gender. Besides, I swear our girls do a good job at humanizing our more "serious" teammates.