Girls are still undermined?

[Andrew Blair]

Mmm, I don't know. Alot of the girls we have had on our team recently are the stereotypical girl, where getting her hands dirty is an unforgivable sin. Now don't get me wrong, we have had some girls do wonders in the machine shop, and they are strongly encouraged, perhaps bcause they are so rare. But alot of initial "stereotyping" is done because so many girls are afraid to get their hands dirty. I guess thats where FIRST comes in too. It gives them a chance to learn otherwise remote mechanical skills, and if they choose not to learn then they have other opportunities: Chairmans, animation, and general graphic design.

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Mmm, I don't know. Alot of the girls we have had on our team recently are the stereotypical girl, where getting her hands dirty is an unforgivable sin. Now don't get me wrong, we have had some girls do wonders in the machine shop, and they are strongly encouraged, perhaps bcause they are so rare. But alot of initial "stereotyping" is done because so many girls are afraid to get their hands dirty. I guess thats where FIRST comes in too. It gives them a chance to learn otherwise remote mechanical skills, and if they choose not to learn then they have other opportunities: Chairmans, animation, and our teams personal favorite, flirting with boys at competitions. (ahh! don't lynch me! Some girls) .

Andrew,

I don't think that Neha is saying that there is a problem with the girls who want to be on Chairmans, Animation (I'm ignoring the other comment) being there, but rather the ones with interest in engineering being forced to participate in the aforestated groups and not allowed to participate in engineering because of their lack of the ever coveted Y chromosome.

Neha, yes, it's a problem. That is a big reason that, especially the MI chapter of, the RCU is around. Girls who are not being allowed to do such things can go there to talk and try to learn the skills that some aren't being taught on their teams so that they can be just as competant as their male counterparts. It is support and it is education. It's a safe place, basically. The best way that I know of to deal with a situation where you are being judged as inferior is to prove your competency. CD, RCU and mentors, even from other teams, can all prove valuable resources in this sort of unacceptable situation.

And for the record, if any girls are in this position on their teams and just want to vent, my screen name on AIM is spartychica08. While I can provide little to no technical insight, I can probably at least get you in contact with someone that can help out.

[Koko Ed]

When we recruits kids one requirement to being an X-Cat is you have to do one year working on the robot. Boy or girl. NO EXCEPTIONS. We prefer the kids get the full FIRST experience by trying all aspects of the team. It may not win us a buttload of awards on the field but it accomplishes our ultimate goal of building up that child for the future.

[sciguy125]

Before someone bites my head off: I will be speaking in generalizations. If I say that a certain group does something, it in no way means that everyone in that group will do it. The following statements are also observations, not opinions.

While I'm not willing to say that girls tend toward the "creative" tasks, I will say that they tend away from engineering tasks. Without encouragement and reassurance, I've noticed that many girls that have passed through the team won't do engineering. It seems that they won't do it on their own. I'm not just talking about the dirty work, they don't seem to like design work either. While most of them will do the work, they usually need active encouragement and someone to make sure they keep going. Once they get into it, though, they'll stay with it. There haven't been many that want to take on higher level engineering positions though.

I will also note that with the creation of our administrative branch (marketing, PR...) there was a massive influx of girls. However, they seem to have evenly distributed themselves between engineering and administration.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Before someone bites my head off: I will be speaking in generalizations. If I say that a certain group does something, it in no way means that everyone in that group will do it. The following statements are also observations, not opinions.

While I'm not willing to say that girls tend toward the "creative" tasks, I will say that they tend away from engineering tasks. Without encouragement and reassurance, I've noticed that many girls that have passed through the team won't do engineering. It seems that they won't do it on their own. I'm not just talking about the dirty work, they don't seem to like design work either. While most of them will do the work, they usually need active encouragement and someone to make sure they keep going. Once they get into it, though, they'll stay with it. There haven't been many that want to take on higher level engineering positions though.

I will also note that with the creation of our administrative branch (marketing, PR...) there was a massive influx of girls. However, they seem to have evenly distributed themselves between engineering and administration.

I tend towards the creative stuff and avoid even thinking of touching the robot. I'm just plain not handy and would do more harm than good but my degree is in graphic design and it's what I do best.

[Allison K]

I had this disucussion with a few of my team members just last week.

At least to me, it has never been an issue on our team. Everyone (both boys and girls) will stand their ground whether the debate is about the robot or about spirit. Maybe we just have a really confident group of girls.

We've almost had the opposite occurance at times. The girls taking the robot from the boys. But other times it will be the veterans overshadowing the rookies, or the outgoing kid not noticing that the quiet kid has something to say. To me it seems to be a matter of attitude and personality more than gender.

[Barry Bonzack]

As always, any student on a team that does a job whether it be work on the robot or work away from the robot is still very much part of the team. We try to get the art club involved on the team... mostly girls doing mostly artsy things, but there is nothing wrong with that as Beth has said. One girl on the art club even helped out with the team animation the past two year, Fantastic. The past two years I have made attempts to get the school cheerleaders to partner with us to help show spirit at competition. UCF 05, only one of the girls came from the squad and was in the stands yelling just as much as anyone else on the team. This year she has been one of the most dedicated students on the robotics team so far. I am expecting that she will keep with it this year and even start to learn some mechanical work while also showing some interest in some of the chairman's work as well.

My point being this, Robotics is full of jobs for everyone; Come for the desk work, stay for the build.

[MChapman]

I agree that there are some people that still undermine girls in FIRST. I dont agree with the people that say mechanical stuff is for the guys on the team, an the spirit stuff is for the girls! That's not what were here for! We're here to work together on things, as a team, an a team should be doing stuff together. Any girl, whether she is a cheerleader, or dancer on a team can get involved with the mechanics. I know i'm more of the spirited type of girl on my team an want to dance at competitions an i do, but i also get involved with the desgin phase and mechanics. My team allows that, granted some of our older engineers dont like it, because we dont have much expierence, but i'm willing to share the knowledge that i have with them, if they are willing to share their knowledge with me. As of last year i was starting to get involved with the desgin an build team by weighing the robot parts, making prototypes, and even coming up with ideas for our robot desgin. I enjoy the mechanics in FIRST an i'm only willing to learn more. I even get involved with chairman's and the animation, i want to go into web desgin as my major, and it sounds like so much fun. But for those people that dont approve of that really should change their minds about letting girls do work in the shop. They are just as capable as doing anything guys are doing. I would like to see the girls out there that want to be given the chance to work in a shop an have people be proud of what they accomplished, it means a lot to someone.