High school girls build kick-### robots | The Verge

[JamesCH95]

I emailed my mom (my PhD, PE, patent-holding, former US national XC ski racer, former head coach of 95, civil-engineer-of-a-mom) to talk about this article as I had some mixed feelings about it. Here is some of what she had to say:

It is hard to describe the "get out of the way, I'll drive" experience of ALL women in the United States today to someone who has not had that experience.

In the article, there are a few disparaging remarks about boys (that didn't need to be there)--but the article is more about getting girls to see that they can learn things than it is about girls being better than boys. Do you think your boys would be discouraged by those comments? (angry maybe, but not discouraged...)

As you know, there are still some "all girl" options for high school and university, and all women that I know that did those are now well-integrated in a co-ed workplace (otherwise, I wouldn't know them) in the Air Force, Army, etc.... Having an all-girl techie experience would be a very cool developmental phase for some people. (And, I'm envious...) So the comments about [an all-girls team] being "unrealistic" don't apply in my opinion.

Interestingly, I had an Iranian-born professor in my Master's Program (as the male high school teacher is) who was ahead of his American counterparts in dealing with women engineering students. He expected me to be as good as the men--and was one of the first people who treated me as an equal "achiever." [IMO this is what we (meaning all of us in STEM/FIRST/etc) need to strive for.] I remember the day he told a story about a husband and wife having an argument about heat transfer--and how the wife was right, and why she was right. This sounds silly, now, but it was THE FIRST time I had ever had that experience of a professor telling a story in which a woman did anything technical! I remain grateful to this day for that kind-hearted, fair-minded man. One of my first experiences of being included... [This is the power that one person can have on a student, my mom remembers this story 30 years later.]

Speaking of which, the year that I was "lead coach" for Team 95 it was really hard for me that I could not be involved technically. What the team needed most was someone to hold it together, but what I really wanted to do was learn more about the robot! I was working so hard, and I'm glad that it helped the team stay together; but, I would have preferred a different role. I was nervous that if I tried to learn anything technical about the robot, it would take too long and slow the team down. [This is one thing that we, as FRC teams, need to avoid at all costs. I think this is why some young women (and even some guys) don't express their desire to be involved technically in their teams. This is why team leaders need to provide opportunities for even the timid students to feel comfortable stepping up.]

Did I tell you about making one of my teams in my Intro Engineering class all girls? [My mom is currently an engineering prof] They were really nervous that they couldn't do anything "because they had never done it before." But in the end, they were so happy when every single one of their group projects worked (while being painted pink). I will definitely repeat that in the future. [Sometimes forcing timid students to step up can be the best solution!]

I hope this perspective is a little enlightening and adds another dimension to the article's theme. I don't really like how the author phrased a few of their comments about males in the article, but that is really just a small blemish in the articles overall message: we need make some drastic changes in order to foster the shift in attitude of both men and women with regards to women in STEM that will allow more people (both men and women) to excel in STEM fields.