Research says: Feminine STEM role models do not motivate girls

[Siri]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

I guess we've been blessed with years and years of confident, bossy girls.

(Agreed with Katie.) There's also a good deal of sample bias for many FRC teams: self-selection for this is usually to confident, bossy people--especially girls because it helps overcome the, at least statistically, negative stereotype both labeled on them externally and held internally.

In fact, we have the same confident girl phenomenon that you do, but the girls on the periphery and unfortunately the ones we've missed or lost completely were very definitely in line with this thread, more so than the boys (who tend to genuinely realize they just don't enjoy it). In fact, with gender-neutral recruiting, we've considered [completely unscientifically] that it isn't because most girls are more--or even generally equal--to guys in confidence and these other facets, but because the ones that are tend to be more mature.

Understandably but unfortunately, the overall population does not have the same concentration of self-assurance. If all these people--men and women--were following other dreams with full confidence and support, what a wonderful world we'd have. Given the research though, there's very strong evidence of external pressures steering away from that vision.