Make: To Build a Better Team, Build a Better Robot - Kate Azar on Women in STEM

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by lovelj

... Dating. Ugh

We've definitely encountered that problem, and not just among the students. We have two adult mentors (both parents of team members) who are dating.

We have plenty of girls on the team, largely because Jesse, our head coach, actively recruits females, racial minorities, and other groups that you would not "normally" expect to be on the robotics team. He doesn't actively recruit white males with an interest in STEM, but then he doesn't have to. We have probably had more girls on the team than boys. Unfortunately, we have a lower retention rate for girls, which is something we're working on. I asked one of the girls (my own daughter) why the retention rate was low, and what we could do. She said that most of the girls she knew who left did so because of intra-team dating (and in some cases they weren't directly involved, but were friends with one or the other). It's also obvious that flatly outlawing dating between team members is not a viable solution; people will hide it, leave the team, or be miserable in some other way.

We have implemented rules that people who are dating each other serve on different sub-teams, and refrain from PDA during team time. If anyone has taken additional practical steps, please share!