Girls on Teams

[dubiousSwain]

Originally Posted by Miss157

On our team we have about six girls. One is the person who CADded most of our robot, another designed our T-shirt, and I'm Safety Captain and I write submissions for the awards.

It's a little disheartening to hear people in this thread be so dismissive to be honest. "Just do PR"? PR and promotional material is part of what makes FIRST to begin with. Spreading the message of FIRST, organizing outreach, getting your team name and FIRST out there is INCREDIBLY important.

A huge part of FIRST is that "It's about more than just the robot".

I agree. I am a guy and recently I have drifted towards more photography and videography. I like to think that my job helps our team just as much as the builders. Just because girls aren't making the robot doesn't mean they aren't an important part of the team.

[Courtneyc303]

Our team has 3 girls on the team. One of us is the team captain and one is our public relations leader. Our team captain is also in charge of the business side of the team. We are also the ones who submit the awards. We find this side of the team interesting, we like working in this area. However 2 of us do participate in the shop whenever time allows outside of PR/Business.

[Abby341]

A large part of our team is female, close to 30 of our 60 team members are girls. I personally do a lot of communications, media, scouting and awards work. About half of our build team is female. One of our two head coaches is a girl. I am one of the 3 female captains and there are 5 of us. OUr operator is a girl, and half of our pit crew are girls. My team has a history of having a lot of girls on our team, I think our mentors and coaches make a point of it when accepting new members. Our media and communications team is mostly girls however. I believe that may have to do with the fact that our only female coach and mentor is head of that area and girls are often more comfortable working with other girls, but thats just my opinion. Our scouting team is super mixed as well, about half and half. I'm really proud to be apart of a team where we never really think about someones position on the team and their gender relate. A lot of the girls on the have graduated from team have gone onto be very successful, working for companies like Nasa, so that also helps eliminate any stereotypes or opinions people may have on the team about a girls ability.

[iffab10]

Originally Posted by batbotcrewfrosh

Since we are an all-girls team, we have lately been interested in the roles of girls on co-ed teams. Some members of my team were doing a survey of the number of girls on teams and their jobs at the Buckeye Regional. We were very disappointed to discover that on some teams, girls were given only the job of cheerleader, or publicist. Continuing that, just please give the number of girls on your team, along w/ the number of students on your team, and what the girls usually do. Thanks a lot!

Team 1306 has 9 girls on a team of 28. The girls on our team have all kinds of leadership positions. I'm a girl who has been on my team for 3 years and I have personally seen our environment shift a lot when it comes to girls and their roles participating in robotics. I am the Senior Co-President on the team this year. Our head of business, outreach, video and marketing are also girls. However, we also have a lot of girls that are very involved with building the robot. Our safety captain is a girl and a new member on our drive team is a girl. The girls do tend to do more of marketing and imagery but I think that's just some girls preference. My team its really flexible, when it comes to students doing what they would like to do, but when we need someone to fill those roles girls usually volunteer or are placed in those positions.

[GeeTwo]

From the get-go, team 3946 has had at least 30% girls. When Gixxy (my son and named as team founder in our 2012 video) did recruiting in summer 2011, he reached out equally to boys and girls. Jesse (our head coach since August 2011) has actively recruited girls, minorities, and "others you wouldn't expect on a robotics team", including jocks, cheerleaders, and even stoners and thugs from his classes. When I think of all the help that these "unusual" recruits have given the team, it gives me pause. When I realize what we have done for them, and what they will likely do for society, it makes me realize (more than anything Dean can say) that FIRST mentorship is a calling, not a hobby.

There's no "glass ceiling" on our team. We had four seniors on the team this year, all guys. None of them was team captain. Our team captain, and primary pit boss, was a junior girl. Who was also our Dean's list nominee. Who also transitioned from a "wasted life" niche into a "productive life" track in the last three years. The winner of our leadership award was another female junior. And finally, the most outrageous technical accomplishment of the year was accomplished by a female underclasswoman. Our mechanical lead mentor declared that pulling the wheels to install sensors in the KoP chassis as I had designed was too difficult. I decided that it was worth a try. Marybeth and I pulled one wheel, installed the sensors, and put it back. I left it to her to take care of the other side. She called me back ONLY for the fine adjustments, and otherwise undertook an upgrade that one of our top mentors considered "too hard for the team to handle" on her own. We also had girls heading up most of our business functions, getting spirit awards and honorable mentions, and posting some serious fundrasing numbers. As long as I have been involved with the team, there have been girls i trusted to "get the job done".

[kristinweiss]

My *former* team is about a quarter girls and for the most part they all gravitate towards website design, marketing, and outreach. That being said, when students join the team they are allowed to work on whatever they want to. Personally, having a strong personality and a mom in robotics, I gravitated very much towards the robot design and build and was on the drive team every year during my time on the team. I have spent my time on the team and as an alumni pushing some of the other girls to get more involved in the robot. I have noticed that a lot of the girls are intimidated at first because the guys who mainly build the robot are so close and can come off as somewhat cliquy, but once I break the barrier and help them get more involved in the robot, they don't want to do anything else. There are two main things that I have noticed that seem to really work to get girls more involved in the robot aspects of the team. The first one is letting them drive the robot. Literally every girl on the team I have ever offered to let drive the robot has hesitated because they were afraid they were going to mess something up, but as soon as they were given the push to take control and drive, it became very hard to take the controls away from them because they loved it so much. I think that letting girls drive the robot has really helped the girls on our team become more involved with the robot design and build because they are working so closely with the robot during competitions and become closer friends with the other robot designers and builders. The other thing that I have found that gets girls more involved in the robotic aspects is to have a female mentor or role model on the team. I grew up with a mom in robotics, so I have always had someone to look up to and was never afraid to take control or ask to try things. That being said, on a mainly male team with even fewer females working on the robot, girls tend to gravitate towards other girls, because let's face it, we are girls and we like to stick together. While I was on the team, I was able to get the number of girls working on the robot to increase simply because I was a girl and was able to look out for them and give them the support they needed. As soon as I graduated I was very disappointed to see that there were no girls working on the robot. When I came back and started to become more involved in the team as an alumni and mentor, I was able to get at least one girl involved who ended up being a rockstar driver at our regional competition and at worlds, and I hope that this year I can get even more girls involved.

So long story short, I think that girls are more inclined to do what they already know which tends to be more marketing and PR, and girls like to work with other girls. In order to get girls into more technical positions, they need other girls to work with and someone to help push them to try new things.

[meow-its-sarah]

I'm the only girl on a currently 8 member team. For my freshman and sophomore years, I worked as just scouting lead and tried to participate in robot-building, but didn't do much because of other team issues. Last year, I was scouting lead again, but also worked heavily with the electrical and programming sub-teams and I loved being able to know what was actually going on with the robot.

This year I applied and was accepted to be business lead, even though robot-building is more of my passion, simply because the boys won't do it themselves and someone has to take responsibility for, you know, sponsorship, since the team does *GASP* need money to function.

I'm focusing on business off-season, so I can continue to work with the electrical and programming teams because I refuse to give up working on the robot after waiting years to be able to do so. I'm also hoping to be teaching the guys how to work with and keep sponsors or get some of our school's DECA/ marketing students involved, so the robot people (aka me) don't have to give up building the robot to market.

Here's to hoping I'll still get to work on the robot this season.

[Clem1640]

We generally have 30-50% girls on our team. We've been fortunate in attracting some very driven and enthusiastic girls. Student leadership is merit-based and the team has always had girls and women in key leadership positions. Some examples:

2 of our current drive team members are girls

1 of our 2 current co-captains is a girl

Our current scouting lead is a girl

For 4 years (ending 2014), our pit captain and lead mechanical student was a girl.

For 4 years (ending 2014), our drive team coach was a young woman

Our 2015 robot chassis (and many earlier ones) was welded by a girl

One of our 3 current lead programmers is a girl

Having girls and women in leadership positions on the team has, I think, made it easier for girls coming on to the team to step into leading positions themselves.

It has also helped make us a better team; it's hard to get the best person possible to perform a job if you effectively eliminate half the population (why would you do this?).

[nate12345678]

We have approximately a dozen girls on a 63 person team. the girls are as equally involved as the boys, with about 4 who do nothing, 1 on cad, and the rest are on mechanical/electrical. very reflective of the boys, except there were no girls on programming.

[Qbot2640]

2014 was the first year we were not majority-female. This year, our President, Programming Captain, CFO, and Buyer are all female, and they are also some of our best builders.

Don't tell my son this, but if I had to choose one or the other - I'd take a team full of young women before a team full of young men!

[shlynfrhm]

Our team has been all guys for about 6 years, until last year, when both I and one of my best friends joined. Then, this year we added another female member.

We have about 18 members on our team, 3 of which are girls. This is a record number, but the team will unfortunately be reverting back to all male next year, when we all graduate. I'm the Lead Programmer and one of the girls is an assisting fabricator, but my best friend single-handedly runs the fundraising effort for our team. Often times the girls on are team are expected to handle all the paperwork/organization details, even if w'ere juggling our own projects. But I know that on other teams, the demographics are much different

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by shlynfrhm

But I know that on other teams, the demographics are much different

This seems to be the biggest constant across teams - each one is different. In our first year (2012, Rebound Rumble), it seemed like we were the only team at Bayou that was anywhere close to 50/50. We had to have an extended talk on "watching out for your sisters" with the males on our team. Three years later, it seems like most teams are sending a 1:2 or better ratio of girls - we have the same talk, but it isn't quite as immediate. I did notice (as we were alliance partners at Bayou this year) that Wildcat was mostly male. Is there a culture there that tends to exclude/shun/shy girls away from the team? For the record, I grew up closer to Destrehan than to Slidell (in Avondale, just over the Jefferson Parish line, but on the West Bank). If there's some way that we (meaning 3946 or all of CD) can enable broader inspiration, please let us know!

[phurley67]

Not sure of our count (we are a pretty large team and our numbers are somewhat fluid); however, the majority of members are male. That said our president, vice-president and programming lead (my daughter --> go Allie) this year are all girls. Last year our president and co-pilot were also girls. We have girls working in most if not all of our sub-groups.

[Celia]

Two years ago, we had a majority of female members (about 12 of 20). The past season, 11 of 25 were female, which is close enough to 50/50. However, more young women have assumed leadership roles on our team. The team captain (me), electrical lead, programming lead, business lead, and scouting lead were all female. This is five young women in leadership roles compared to two young men (CAD and build) on our team. In addition to this, our drive team this past season consisted of a female driver (also me) and operator (said programming lead) with a male human player.

I love how involved and driven our girls are, and I think it is encouraging for new members to see girls in respected positions, no matter the field. Our electrical lead was even mistaken for a mentor during inspection at competition this year by a mentor of a Hall of Fame team.

[raystubbs]

4 girls of an average of about 15 members. Girls mostly do the paperwork and booth decorations, but those are the jobs they choose. We have been trying to get the girls to do some building or programming, but they don't seem to be interested at all.