Attracting Females to STEM/FIRST

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by AndrewPospeshil

Because gender-neutral recruitment/encouragement really draws in mostly boys, as STEM is still a male-dominated field, and is seen as a "manly" thing.

I see what you mean with this point, but I would argue that gender neutral recruiting can be just as effective as long as it is done right. Case in point, at one of our recent open houses I made a point to speak with most every girl who came by and give them more personal attention than the average boy. I asked them all what they are interested in, what they like to do, and what other teams or activities they participate in. Basically, I made the conversation much more personal with them and was able to pick out a few of their interests and say "Oh, we really need people interested in <blank> on our team" and list a couple examples of tasks/projects in that area. My goal was to make them feel necessary and needed and that their interests are incredibly valuable to us; that we need their passion.

This is my general approach with boys as well, but I make a more concerted effort with girls because I know of the societal prejudice pushing them away.

Originally Posted by AndrewPospeshil

The simple answer is to encourage girls as individuals, and don't make them join because they're female and you need females (for your purposes), but for them to challenge themselves . . .
TL;DR: Make girls understand that this is an incredible opportunity. Don't recruit them because they're female, recruit them because everybody deserves to be a part of FIRST.

Well said, I think we agree