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

[Mikell Taylor]

You know, I really don't think it's FIRST's responsibility to make FRC teams look just like "the real world." Think about your co-ed team. It is made up of people in a specific school district, right? Chances are most of you are the same ethnicity, or the same socio-economic demographic, or all immigrants from the same country, or the same in any other number of characteristics. That's not always the case, true, but because schools are built around neighborhoods and neighborhoods tend to attract similar types of people, there's a really good chance your team doesn't look at all like "the real world."

FIRST as a program is designed to encourage and inspire students in a controlled environment. The problem they set out for you to tackle is achievable -- challenging, but achievable. Everyone is working with your best interest in mind. Everyone is trying hard to help you succeed and learn as much as you can. I can assure you that does not in any way resemble the real world of engineering. FIRST is structured to make it comfortable and easy for you to learn what you need to learn so that you are inspired to go tackle it in the unstructured, un-cushioned, much more intimidating "real world."

So while I appreciate the concern in this thread from all the men who are worried that women on all-girls teams will enter the engineering world as wilting flowers unable to suddenly deal with a co-ed environment, I don't think they have any more problem than you do going into college coursework with people richer than you who have had way more opportunities (and possibly more education), people poorer than you who haven't had the privileges and opportunities you have, people from different ethnic backgrounds and even different countries -- the list goes on. All an all-girls team does is offer female students who might otherwise be intimidated enough to be discouraged from STEM fields a chance to try something out in what feels like a safer, more supportive environment, to have a chance to build their confidence and emerge from the program willing and able to handle anything the "real world" can throw at them.

There are plenty of women in this thread who've said their co-ed team experiences made them the successful engineers they are today. There are plenty who have said the same thing about their all-girls team experience. There is no single answer. But I think it is clear that all-girls teams do play an important role in helping FIRST achieve their goals.