Recruiting Girls

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by snoman

We had a issue getting young ladies involved in our team for several years. One of our girl members suggested we start a 2nd all girls team at our school. So we talked to all H.S. girls and all incoming freshman girls to see if we had enough interest. Well we did! Now our very rural high school of 200 students has a boys and a girls FIRST team. This was the girls 2nd year.
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Mentor of the Cass Lake Bena Regulators 3275 (Boys)and Accelerators 3134(Girls)

OK, I'm confused. This post was made a few minutes ago, in 2015. The girls team started later, and had a smaller number, but both teams have numbers like they started at least five years ago. TBA shows both teams as first competing in 2010. Or are your signature and team affiliation out of date?

Also, while I'm certainly a follower of "You inspire your way; I'll inspire mine," I am concerned that all-girls teams may in the long run be a disservice to both the girls and the boys. The vast majority of female students inspired to STEM careers will end up working (at least for the first decade or so) in a predominately male career field. The vast majority of males will end up working with women; I project that a majority will end up working for a woman at some point in their career. While I've never been one to actively pursue diversity (more power to those of you who do!), when the opportunity arises I'd much rather embrace diversity than to create a segregated culture. Our latest organizational changes require all team members (and strongly encourage mentors) to contribute on both the technical and business side; among the goals is to better integrate the team across gender lines.