What's the gender demographic of your team leadership?

[Madison]

It might also be interesting to learn similar information about a team's mentors.

[serenagh]

For the past two years, I've been the captain and drive coach of my primarily male FRC team. I'm a graduating senior, and our coming leadership is male (with the exception of our programming captain).
My all female FTC team has girls in all of our leadership positions, and we are heavily student run.

I suspect that high rates of female leadership in mostly-male teams, especially when those positions are decided on skill and merit has to do with the level of commitment, dedication, and passion it takes to stick out a male heavy environment in order to participate in something you love doing.

I'm also curious about female representation within drive teams. During the Einstein finals, of the 8 teams that made it (4 drivers apiece), only one (1405's human player, IIRC), was female. 1/32. This stunned me. Thoughts?

[smitikshah]

Originally Posted by serenagh

For the past two years, I've been the captain and drive coach of my primarily male FRC team. I'm a graduating senior, and our coming leadership is male (with the exception of our programming captain).
My all female FTC team has girls in all of our leadership positions, and we are heavily student run.

I suspect that high rates of female leadership in mostly-male teams, especially when those positions are decided on skill and merit has to do with the level of commitment, dedication, and passion it takes to stick out a male heavy environment in order to participate in something you love doing.

I'm also curious about female representation within drive teams. During the Einstein finals, of the 8 teams that made it (4 drivers apiece), only one (1405's human player, IIRC), was female. 1/32. This stunned me. Thoughts?

I agree with your hypothesis on why we find more female leaders on male dominated teams.

I am also this years drive coach (student drive coaches have been female as far as I know - again of pure merit) and even just attending and being on drive team for one regional the lack of females on drive team was obvious. I don't think it has anything to do with teams intentionally putting males on drive team but more so a thing of intimidation by the current abundance of males on drive team. Like I said even before I became a leader on the team I was hesitant because I thought it was super intimidating. Had I seen more girls doing the same things it may have felt a bit more inviting to me.

This might apply to drive team as well - and I think its completely subconscious.

I now have come to love being on drive team and meeting and competiting with all the new people regardless of gender.

[bmoore]

Team 2502's Breakdown:

Total Team Members: 42
Total Female Team Members: 10
Notes: As with any team, there are varying levels of commitment on an FRC team. We have seen fewer girls take on that less committed level than we do guys. I suspect that is because, in the male dominated environment, girls are more likely to just quit than to stick around on the outskirts. However, it does mean that the vast majority, if not all, of our female members are highly committed to the team.

Total Number of Leadership Positions: 11
Total Number of Females in Leadership Positions: 4
Leadership Position Breakdown:
Business Captains: both female
Engineering Captains: both male
Awards Lead: female
Outreach Lead: female
Marketing Lead: male
CAD Lead: male
Programming Lead: male
Design and Fabrication Lead: male
Strategy/Scouting Lead: male
Notes: I was honestly disappointed by the breakdown of our business leadership vs. our engineering leadership this year. There was a huge gender disparity with no engineering captain or lead positions being taken on by females. We did, however, increase our gender ratio in general team members this year, and I think that will reflect in our 2016/2017 leadership. Tomorrow we will find out for sure, but I am hoping that we will have one female and one male engineering captain. There are also several girls who were rookies this year who have told me they will be applying for engineering lead positions that will likely get them.

[Sperkowsky]

I will add to Smiti's post with our leadership from past years.

In 2015 we had 4 leadership positions 3 of them were filled by females.

In 2014 we had 4 leadership positions and none of them were filled by females.

There is also some science pointing towards Woman being better leaders.

This article talks about it a bit.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Madison

It might also be interesting to learn similar information about a team's mentors.

For the 2016 season, the CyberCards had four male mentors (three technical, one nontechnical) and five female mentors (three technical, two nontechnical).

We have not met another team with >50% female mentors - even the "all girls teams". I would love for somebody to prove me wrong!

We would love to find out similar data for other FRC teams. I'm not sure if HQ tracks mentor demographics or not; does anybody know who to contact for data?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Taylor

We would love to find out similar data for other FRC teams. I'm not sure if HQ tracks mentor demographics or not; does anybody know who to contact for data?

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

We don't have student leadership on our team, really, so I don't have anything to contribute to that conversation.

With respect to our mentors, however, there are 7 women and 11 men. Two of the women are technical mentors. All 11 of the men are technical mentors. Our lead advisor is a woman.

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

You don't have student leadership? That seems like a really big lost opportunity to teach new leaders.

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Madison

Student leaders naturally emerge. We recognize that and will often give those students additional responsibilities and privileges, but the process for doing that isn't formalized.

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Why not? A student leadership title is very helpful come college applications.

What's more important than students developing leadership skills for their college applications is simply the fact that they are developing leadership skills.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Hallry

What's more important than students developing leadership skills for their college applications is simply the fact that they are developing leadership skills.

Well of course. I was more addressing the fact that they were leading without it being formalized.

[Knufire]

469 went a similar route. Instead of having formal leaders, those that lead naturally emerged and were respected all the same by their peers. Teamwork was one of the most important principles taught to the students; the team operated on the basis that everyone, mentor or student, was an equal member.

In terms of college applications, most of these student leaders (for the four years I was on the team) went to Michgan, MIT, or Rose to pursue an engineering degree, so I'd say the lack of formalized titles wasn't a detriment.

IMO, this process also avoided a lot of internal drama that afflicts other teams when leaders are chosen/elected for specific positions. It also reduces the amount of scramble when an elected/appointed leader doesn't furfull their duties; without formal leaders the responsibility natrually progresses to someone else.

To contribute to the original intent of the thread, 469 was roughly even on the gender split of student leaders when I was on the team. 5188 has always had a female team captain and non-engineering lead, and male mechanical and programming leads.

[abigailthefox]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Well of course. I was more addressing the fact that they were leading without it being formalized.

Formalizing leadership also helps resolve disputes. If a student is qualified and well-suited to lead, and is offered such a positions and accepts, they deserve respect as a leader. FRC is full of teenagers, who might not be the most complacent to a student leader in the same way they would be an adult (not every teen is this way, and some teams don't really have this problem, but it does happen). Offering a formal position can come with an outline of "here are your responsibilities, and here are your privileges". For example, maybe a CAD leader can delegate CAD duties to people on a CAD team. While all team members have input, the delegation and final approval of parts might be the responsibility of the CAD lead. If the CAD lead is given an actual title and formal position, as well as some authority to make the decisions in their jurisdiction, things often flow quite smoother, and the design process can be streamlined.


This year, the person leading our CAD was not really given any way to enforce their responsibilities. Thus, people who disagreed with the CAD lead didn't bring their ideas or designs to her to discuss before finishing them and adding them to the final assembly. Soon enough, a few weeks had passed, and there was no time to go back. Despite the frequent queries from the CAD lead to inspect and discuss design ideas FIRST, the design ended up being cobbled together. Consequently, the mechanical parts constructed from those designs didn't work very well together.

TL;DR: Actual leadership titles and responsibilities that are actively backed up by mentor support can really matter when disagreements arise

[NickKerstens]

There's already been a significant amount of great conversation and well written points made in this thread, but I thought it would still be worth putting my and my team's two cents in.

One major change that our team faced this year was how most of our veteran members either graduated or left the team, leaving us with an abundance of rookie members that knew little to nothing about FRC, FIRST or even STEM for that matter.

Because of this, along with other factors influenced by the amount of team drama built up over the past few years, 4343 opted against creating leadership roles for each department of the team (finance, electrical, etc.) and instead only having two student-lead positions: Director and Assistant Director. The Assistant Director role is filled by two students rather than one, lightening the load on the Director and the Assistant Director.

These positions are filled through a written application including a resume, cover letter, and three references, with an unbiased third-party interview with applicants conducted later. Our director for the First Stronghold season is Male, and both of the co-assistant directors are Female. On 4343 we don't consider gender when the selecting the candidate, and we have had Females holding the top position in the past.

It's also worth noting that it's more common of the female members on our team to demonstrate and utilize leadership qualities, regardless of their experience or knowledge. When they want to get things done, they get things done!