Girls are still undermined?

[C.Roberts 1089]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I hope this has been your experience with other students, and none of this has come from mentors!

I assume your team is broken up along functional lines. Is there any reason why you cant be on the drive train, or electrical, or other mechanical design part of the team this year?

The mentors have not been biased, though occasionally one of them has some rude and sexist comments. He's always joking though, and we know that though it's sometimes offensive anyway. However, if I ask him to explain something to me, he always does, if he can. The problem is, sometimes anyway, that the mentors are willing to help but simply don't have the time. They're juggling their own jobs outside of FIRST, or the student mentors are trying to deal with the pressures of college, and when they're there they just don't have as much time for that kind of stuff. As far as I'm concerned, it's more the job of the upperclassmen to teach younger students what they don't know. But I'm a junior now - my third year on the team - and I still haven't learned very much about the actual building and such. There really isn't a reason why I can't be on the drive train, or electrical, or mechanical design 'part' of the team... except that I'm just not qualified. That's my goal for this year, is to be involved in all of that. And be able to do it myself. Without other people telling me, "Okay, now connect the red here to the red there, and then this black to that black." I want to understand what I'm doing, not just do it. And that requires knowing some things in advance.

Originally Posted by Karthik

Here's the problem. In general, less girls take tech courses in high school.

Problem at my highschool is that we don't really offer any tech courses for anyone. We used to have a metal shop, but it got cut from the budget long ago. The only courses I really found that were at all similar to robotics were programming courses, which I considered but wasn't sure I was ready to take on this year with the rest of my (pretty heavy) workload.

Originally Posted by Cory

While everything you've said is dead on with respect to girls, it also often holds true with freshmen/first year members.

I noticed that while I was posting the first time. Most freshmen don't get quite as much verbal abuse though. But that's what it's like for a lot of the girls - being like freshmen interminably.

And to comment on what Genia said, don't get me wrong, I do thoroughly enjoy doing writing and PR and organizing for the team, and I'm good at it... I'd just like to do more. I'm not saying every girl does, but if they do, they should be encouraged.

And finally, to Oz, that's an awesome policy you guys have. That's exactly the type of attitude that's perfect for FIRST. Congratulations =).