Gender Equality: A Work in Progress

[planetbrilliant]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Our team runs on about a 40:60 ratio.

Our of our female members there is only one who is seriously interested in engineering. The rest do jobs like marketing, music development, cleaning, and sometimes nothing. This is their choice though. I wish some of the female members did more engineering but honestly if they have no desire then why push them.

Okay, I am by no means targeting you and your team specifically and i might have misunderstood your statement, but I feel like lots of people kind of automatically assume that the girls aren't into engineering. Like a girl could be into engineering but when they get assigned into sub-groups they get pushed toward design, finance etc, and if they try to work on the robot they feel excluded or unwanted. This might not be purposeful on behalf of the manufacturing team, but intentional or not it is a problem. All four of the girls are interested in working on the robot, but instead they are pushed toward scouting, attendance, design, chairman's etc.

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by smurfgirl

(snip snop)
Of course, there are plenty of great people out there in the world too, but you can see how the frequent negative messaging can start to add up and push women out of STEM.

This is a big part of it, sadly. "Nerd" culture can be as elitist as anything else.

Originally Posted by planetbrilliant

might not be purposeful on behalf of the manufacturing team, but intentional or not it is a problem. All four of the girls are interested in working on the robot, but instead they are pushed toward scouting, attendance, design, chairman's etc.

This ties into this I promise. Microagressions-little statements/actions that are common in speech/life and "accidentally" hurtful-are common in normal life, and there is no difference for people in FRC. (an example is assuming female-presenting members aren't on build, hardy har har.) Just being aware of microagressions can change a lot on a team's culture. Communication is also really important when confronting stuff like that.

Passion is also instrumental. If a person on the team is passionate about something they are not typically expected to be passionate of, so be it. FIRST is about reaching out even if you don't fit a STEM archetype and learning not just about engineering, but other things one may be interested in. I'm not saying it's bad to push students if they have potential, but on the other side, don't try and discourage a student from their passion because they might be stereotypically better at something else (does that make sense).

yay opinions

[Steven Smith]

Decent article by Scott Adams I read this morning. Not specific to STEM, but just an open discussion on gender bias in the workplace and how it relates to pay-gap.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/1140555...-the-workplace

[346CADmen]

As a male mentor, maybe my appreciation of this thread may differ. I don't know what "girls" are up against, having not been in that place.
That said, our team had a female CEO last year, two young ladies this year provided most of our precision machining work. it also looks as if next years CAD lead will be female. I can't imagine what is holding ladies back in FIRST, except maybe themselves. And please, I say that not to demean anyone or any team, but to encourage all to use their talents and desire to achieve their goals.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

I can't imagine what is holding ladies back in FIRST, except maybe themselves.

I vehemently disagree with this statement. There are multiple studies about women in the STEM fields, women in executive roles, etc. which show that women are not the ones holding themselves back - the problem stems from widespread cultural issues. Attitudes like the one above are part of the problem, since they perpetuate the idea that if women just try harder it will solve all of the problems they face.

Edit: This is why I mentioned the importance of the attitude and approach of mentors/leadership/authority figures in my first post in this thread. The culture established and supported by an organization's leadership plays a big role in whether women (and minorities) are welcomed and can thrive, or are discouraged and pushed away.

[Rachel Lim]

There are many things that can encourage or discourage anyone to participate in any given activity, and the same is true for girls in FRC. Since everyone will be attracted (or turned away) for different reasons, it's hard to list anything specific that will help everyone. But two things that I have noted in terms of ways girls seemed to be turned away:

• The first, more obvious one is to just actively discourage them from joining, think if they join it won't be for the technical aspects, or make it a less welcoming environment for them.
• However, at least to me, another issue is programs aimed at girls (or any program trying to get more girls) simplify themselves to the point where it seems to say that girls couldn't do it otherwise.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I've never had any issues with being a girl in any STEM classes with mostly boys. I haven't felt judged or discouraged because of it, and sometimes almost feel like the boys in those classes are less judging then the girls are. My main issue is the second one, which I've experienced multiple times with STEM activities aimed at girls (outside of robotics) when I did them many years ago.


In an ideal world, everyone would be shown every subject and could pick their favorite without pressure from anyone to do one over another. That might result in a 50/50 split, or it may not. Since that is a very distant goal, my recommendations to any team trying to make members of any gender (or race, economic background, education, etc.) feel welcome are:

• Eliminate any obvious discrimination especially from the mentors
• Make the environment as open as possible
• Have workshops to teach the basic skills some members may never have learned
• Don't make prior assumptions about what someone wants to do
• Don't judge them based on what they do end up doing (note this goes both ways)
• Don't treat people differently simply based on gender or anything else (I know some girls do need more encouragement, but so do some boys. I personally treating everyone similarly, and guiding those who need additional encouragement to be able to prove to themselves they can succeed like other members is ideal. Telling someone they're always right just because they're a girl isn't much better than telling them they're always wrong just because they're a girl. Both ways say that girls are inherently less capable, although the first less directly.)

In summary: make your team open, encourage those that need it, but don't do it in a way that implies they're incapable of equally good work as other members.

[Gdeaver]

I could go on for pages and pages on this subject but will only state 2 things.

"Respect" Male, female, mentor, student Must respect each other. Respect is something that must be the foundation of a team. It is not something that just happens, it takes work.

At this age, 9th to 12th, the girls must learn how to play with the boys and more importantly the boys must learn how to play with the girls. This is hard and mentor involvement and interaction can really help them deal with this.

The worst mistake I made in mentoring was in 2003 when I put the 5 girls on the team into a group on a design build project. It was a disaster. I still feel bad for them. I created the exclusion. Now I strive to break up the natural tendency to for clicks of mono-sex. I strive to keep things mix up and not to let the clicks form. It's hard but once the barriers are broken down it's amazing to watch them perform and grow as a team.

A little respect and practice playing together.

I don't care what sex race or culture some one is as long as they want to play robots with me.

[alisonap]

I have been a part of the FIRST Robotics community since I was in fourth grade and this year I will be participating in 5th year of FRC as a junior in high school. Robotics has proven to be a place for me to find comfort and fun regardless of my gender, but it isn't always easy.

For me, the biggest support to stay with the team and engineering has been the older female students taking me under their wing and pushing me to do my best. Now that I have been a part of this community for a couple of years, I'm trying to do that for future female engineers.

Each girl (and boy) should have a mentor or returning student to turn to. I encourage everyone to find someone to become a mentor for and listen to all of their opinions.