Girls on Teams

[BlueOrion]

We have 30 students on our team, 7 of which are girls. We used to have more earlier in the year, but every year with time, girls and guys fade away. Last year there happened to only be 4 though. Most of the girls do scouting, media, business plan, chairman's, other awards, that type of thing. Me and one other girl are on the build/pit crew and we get our share of work. On our team, work is work and whoever is told to do it or who wants to do it is expected to do it, regardless of anything.

[BetsyTheMuffin]

My team, 449, has seven girls of about 20 kids. I've definitely encountered a bit of a "glass ceiling;" it's hard for guys to realize that they're being patronizing to girls, or that they're undervaluing our contributions, because for most it's not a conscious thing. Still, it's a lot better now than it used to be; when our team was founded five years ago, there were only two girls on the team. One was pretty shy and because of that got all jobs taken away from her (except scouting and programming, which she proved EXCELLENT at) by more assertive guys. The other.... well, I knew her, and she was "unique." She was one of the more important members of the team, mostly because she was rather hard to ignore ever.

Last year, though, I joined and so did several more girls; last year's total number of girls, 8, was the highest total number we've ever had. (Although as the team itself is smaller this year, 7 might be higher percentage-wise.)
What do they do? Well, I'll admit that at Regionals this year I mostly did PR work--but that's because this year the drive train (the system I mostly worked on) worked perfectly! Drive is mostly the province of the girls; there's only one guy on the drive team. All the girls are on drive except one; she's our treasurer and resident programming genius/general genius. Two of the drive girls also do scouting, and they're amazing at that; they sit in the stands, watch every match (even the practices) and remember every. single. one. We'd definitely be crippled strategy-wise if it weren't for their detailed reports on the robots in our upcoming matches.... (oops, did I just give away the secret of our sucess? )

[Michael R. Lee]

Looking back on my four years as a high school student. My first year a freshmen on 180 (S.P.A.M.) the girls did work (there were at least 5 and a number of them were seniors) in the assembly and machining of components. Second year same amount roughly but only 1 of them actually did anything productive. Like my last two years on S.P.A M., the over whelming majority of them were more concerned about…. Socializing over working. We’d ask them to do something and sometimes it’d be why? Or they’d just do that and have absolutely no follow up (like deburring a part… well they’d do 1 of the 6 parts that needed that). Part of it they never stepped up to do any of the work on the other side of the coin. But I admit I am guilt of shunning out girls from the Pits and doing work, partly preferring to deal with those who knew what they are doing and those who volunteer versus volunteering somebody.

One of my mentors, Warren, told us this my freshman year of high school (was it really four robotic seasons ago?) that one mentor solved part of his problem of the girls not doing any work on the robot. They were afraid of getting themselves dirty. So he lines them up and has them stick their hands out. He sprays them with WD-40 and basically tells them… now you’re hands are dirty so get to work.

The point is as mentors we really do have to in some ways police this issue. Not so much to spray someone whose afraid of getting their hands dirty but to make sure people get a fair chance at getting to do some of the work. There are some girls who will basically tell it to the guys and say let me in on this. Others we seem to have to make way for them. This in itself isn't a good thing either cause a mentor may not always be there to do so.

But really in the whole grand scheme of things is that it is about changing the culture. Something FIRST is about and that is one aspect we ought to help strive to change. Those of you who have been mentors longer than one year please feel free to contact me or respond to this message.

[robofrog716]

yeah we got about 20 kids on our team, if that... and about half of them are girls... and they do a lot for our team... if u've ever seen 716's hook and how fast it worked... yeah a girl designed that that and we love it....


if anyone's going to nat's .... see you there

[Christina47]

If we, Chief Delphi, has not responded... then I will! 16 females out of 27. Half and half. The females on the team are responsible for taking photos, cheering, PR, and of course building some sort of part for the robot during the robot build.

[FIRST-e 250]

I'm happy to say that on our team we have a fairly large group of girls who (for the most part) are very active in building the robot. Our team has a lot of mechanical talent in our female members, and we wouldn't be able to do nearly as well as we do without them. We have a few girls who mostly do team spirit, but they are never relegated to that role, it's just what they prefer to do. The only lack we have is that we have no female programmers. I'm not sure why, but the past three years I've never seen any girl on our team take a serious interest in programming. Next year, after myself and the senior mechanics move on, our mechancial section is going to consist of mostly girls, which I think is really cool.

[30goto20]

Out of a realitively small team (15 students) 1/3 of the students are female, 1 of our teacher/mentors is a female, and our PR plannign person is a female. If it wasnt for the contibutions of these "girls" then our team would not be what it is today. I'm glad that some people are actively working to get more females into mathmatics,science, and engeineering by getting them involved with the FIRST program. If not for all the contributions of all the females in science our world would not be what it is today. And hey, guys, if you dont want females involved with "guy work" then your probably in the wrong program becuase we all know that FIRST is for people of all races,sexs,heights,weights,etc. thats why we love it!
(Oh yeah and by the way, I'm all for getting females intrested in technology becuase face it, we all want to meet smart women who are interested in the things we are.)

[Vince lau]

Originally Posted by Vince lau

Canadian all girls teams that i know of

771 - St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School
1275 - Havergal College
1291 - St. Clement's School

oh ya i forgot Emery Collegiate Institute has two teams this year an all boys team and and all girls team, so that make 4 all girls school teams in the Canadian Regionals that i know of

[Hailfire]

Originally Posted by skrussel

OOOPS! Jason....6 out of 13 are girls!!! they did wiring, construction, and carpentry.

If you didn't notice, I posted that a year ago. On 3-25-03.

[Bcahn836]

out of 40 or so students we have about 6 girls, 5 are in public relations and 1 is in our programing group. We also have 2 female mentors that are engineers. One is lead of public relations, the other is an electronics sub team lead mentor.

[KathieK]

I can't speak on behalf of the female students on RAGE team 173, but as an adult mentor, it appears that the females and males are treated equally on our team.

Approximately one third of our team is female. Our team Captain, Keiko173, is female, and is also our drive team coach. One member of the drive team is female. Females and males were given equal opportunity to try out for these roles.

Our team is organized into many different committees, and students were allowed to select whatever committee they were interested in. As a result, there was female representation on nearly all of our committees.

[michael_obrien]

we have one girl who does girly stuff. She's the girlfriend of our team president. I guess we also have another girl but she does jack. I only saw her at the competition.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by michael_obrien

we have one girl who does girly stuff. She's the girlfriend of our team president. I guess we also have another girl but she does jack. I only saw her at the competition.

I'd be interested in reading about what "girly stuff" entails.

[Lisa Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by M Krass

Quote:
Originally Posted by michael_obrien
we have one girl who does girly stuff. She's the girlfriend of our team president. I guess we also have another girl but she does jack. I only saw her at the competition.


I'd be interested in reading about what "girly stuff" entails.

I second that!

[MisterX]

Originally Posted by Keiko173

I second that!

AMEN, SISTAH!! !!! YOU TELL IT!!!!!!!!