Recruiting Girls

[Amit3339]

Our first goal for the next season is to Increase the number of girls in our team. The main problem is that girls just dosen't apply to the team so i've wanted to ask how other teams encourage girls to join robotics?

[Red2486]

I think one of the scariest things about joining FRC as a girl is that you are afraid you won't have a place, or that you will embarrass yourself in some way. I think a good way to counter both of these things is to have proper training, and to make sure everyone (not just young women) know that it isn't just about the robot. Ensure that they know there are many facets of the team and there is a niche for them on the team, whether with the robot or something else.

How many girls do you have on your team now?
Do you have any female mentors?

[GeeTwo]

The most important thing with targeted recruiting, or for recruiting above what your publicity generates, is the personal appeal. Our head coach is a science teacher, and the vast majority of the young ladies (and most of the non-geeks) on our team were in his science class. You need to be ready to answer reasons like "I don't know anything about robots" [You don't need to know; we teach you] and "I don't want to be the only girl on the team" [We already have N__ and J__, and you can invite a couple of friends to come with you]. Don't downplay the amount of time required, but you may want to emphasize how this amount of time working together helps the team feel more like a family than a club. (You may want to use this angle when recruiting introverted guys, as well.)

Once you have a few on the team, make some effort to ensure that they are included in conversations, especially the "minor conflicts" over robot design. Encourage the ladies to be more assertive with their opinions, and the men to be more receptive of opinions delivered in a more conciliatory manner. Both of them (and probably your robot) will be better for it.

[CoachC]

I am lucky enough to have two very assertive girls on a six member team one of whom is a state beauty pageant winner. Both girls are excellent team members, true contributors (safety, pneumatics, "build team", initial wiring, design concepts) and future leaders of the team.

Our resident state beauty champ desires to be an example for young girls wanting to enter a male dominated field. Her attitude towards robotics is "Beauty, brains and talent"!

She often speaks of working with our State Legislature to have robotics recognized as a sport rather than a club and will probably get a bill passed to that effect (did I mention she is very assertive?)

I feel the FRC would benefit from a recognizing a young woman like her. She is the finest example of young women in robotics and an awesome representative of the sport!

[Phoenix Spud]

I think the key is looking at your materials and seeing what the underlying messages are. I've found that often the unsaid "things" will turn girls away before anything else is communicated. About 70% of what we communicate isn't written/spoken. For example, in one of the videos we often use at events, there are more girls than guys (see here). Being aware of these underlying messages can really help with a push for more girls, minorities, etc.

[BSV]

With any recruiting, personal connections are probably the most important factor, followed closely by making people feel that their contribution is important once they are signed up so that they will stick around. We have a small FRC team, and it also splits into three FTC teams in the fall. Last fall, we decided to have an all-girls FTC team which started out with just two committed ladies, and it was very empowering for them. They added a third for the latter half of the season. They were extremely outgoing and shared a positive message about FIRST (they even won the Promote award for FTC at state). Then they recruited middle schoolers from an FLL team for this new school year, as well as other friends they knew. There are going from 2 girls to probably 10+ girls in less than a year, just by sharing what they know and how much fun the FIRST experience has been for them. Like CoachC, we are lucky that the original three are natural leaders, so that certainly plays a roll (a student council president, a soccer captain, and a Dean's List Finalist).

The FRC team we are taking to an offseason event next weekend is going to be 80% girls, which is a total flip-flop from last year. I imagine that once school starts it will be back to 50/50 again, but that's a great number compared to the ~30% number that is the FIRST average.

Now, if only we could find some more female mentors...

[kristinweiss]

Demo your robots wherever you are trying to recruit girls from and let them drive the robot. You would be surprised how easily girls will get interested in robotics simply by driving a robot and getting their hands on it.

[allgoodthehood]

I was a cheerleader before I joined robotics, and now I'm on my team's build department. One of the things that my team does when recruiting is focusing on the fact that there's something for everyone. Knowing that no matter what I wanted to do whether it was wiring, building, taking pictures, graphic design, strategy, or whatever there was something for me. I would suggest really focusing on the fact that there's something for everyone even girls. That usually is a good selling point and can attract more girls.

I would also suggest having your girls register for FIRST Ladies, this is a great resource to have your girls currently on your team talk to other girls in FIRST. It would also be another great way to get advice for recruiting girls.

[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.

[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.
__________________
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.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

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?

The girls' team got a number from the other team's rookie year, per standard FRC numbering convention.

Long story short, if a team splits for any reason, and both halves are counted as veteran teams, an unused number is picked from the "pool" of numbers that weren't used--but could have been--during the team's rookie year and assigned to one of the two.

Edit: This document may be of interest, particularly Case 2.

[Mark McLeod]

Here are the team histories from the FIRST database reflecting what Eric described.
There are quite a few of these older team numbers given to newly formed teams.
21 were handed out during the 2015 season registration. Team 283 is a good example of a new team this year.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by EricH

The girls' team got a number from the other team's rookie year, per standard FRC numbering convention.

Long story short, if a team splits for any reason, and both halves are counted as veteran teams, an unused number is picked from the "pool" of numbers that weren't used--but could have been--during the team's rookie year and assigned to one of the two.

Edit: This document may be of interest, particularly Case 2.

Thanks for the clarification. While I did realize that "fission" would result in two non-rookie teams when I read the admin book back in January, I did not catch the issuance of a low team number. It was only a couple of months ago that I realized that teams used to be issued different numbers each year; until sometime between Bayou and CMP, I (mis)understood that teams 1 through 28 inclusive played Maize Craze.

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

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.

To expand this idea a bit, all-girls programs have always been an interesting paradox to me. I believe the goal of them is that someday they won't be necessary--that someday everyone, regardless of gender, will be comfortable choosing to participate in whatever they like and no one will notice it either way. Since we're not there yet, programs aimed at girls (or any other minority group) try to increase their confidence to bring them to a point where they believe they can succeed in a co-ed environment. Some people just need more encouragement than others.

In my experience, that isn't always how they work out. Many STEM programs for girls, especially those for younger ones, end up really not showing girls that they can do well in a regular environment but more providing a very strange one that I can't really describe. I guess it's one that some girls like, but I never did and was always hesitant to participate in all-girls programs. But as I was comfortable with regular STEM classes/programs anyway, I wasn't the target audience, so I'm probably not the best judge of this.

My suggestion to anyone, whether trying to include girls on co-ed teams or forming separate teams, would be to show them that they can succeed in a similar environment, not that they're less capable and need a different one. This can work by integrating them into co-ed programs, by having separate ones, or anything in between. With all-girls programs the balance often tips away from aiming for integration in the end and instead creating an unrealistic environment, which is my main worry about them. However I believe there are advantages when that balance is found.


To answer the original question: 1868 is an all-girls team and that plays a role in recruiting. Some girls join because of that fact, others don't really care, and yet others join in spite of it. It's interesting.

[BSV]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

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.

So far we are really happy with the model of gender-separated teams for FTC and then merging them together for FRC. It's really let people step into leadership rolls in FTC who would likely not had the opportunity if they did FRC alone -- and then it carries over to FRC. We're only one year in, though. I'll let you know how it turns out a decade from now.