How did this happen!?!?! 7 new girls in a team of ~20

[sanddrag]

So, right now our team is in total approximately 20 students large including the new students and including one girl returning from last year. Of 8 new students the team took in for the 2006 season, 7 of them are girls! So now we have 8 girls in a team of roughly 20 students. How on Earth did this happen? We have NEVER had this many girls on the team. I don't know what the team did to make this happen, but I'm excited. I hope they all stick with it. We already have at least one learning programming, and at least another one learning Inventor, and there's no doubt a few of them will be building field parts, and most likely one or two will be machining. How exciting huh!?!?

Has anyone else had a strange happening similar to this one?

[KathieK]

Won't it be nice when FIRST finally reaches the stage where there are equal numbers of either gender on a team and it no longer catches our attention?

[santosh]

^That would be nice. Yeah, The Circuitrunners increased our female population by like 9 or ten girls this year. its pretty cool.

[Jon Jack]

The same thing happened to us this year. Last year we had 2 girls on a team of 16. This year our team gre to about 40-ish and half of our team is girls. Not only that but most of them don't want to do PR stuff, they all want to work on the robot.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by jjack

Not only that but most of them don't want to do PR stuff, they all want to work on the robot.

WHAT??? Say it isn't so! What's this world coming to, girls wanting to work on the robot???

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by KathieK

WHAT??? Say it isn't so! What's this world coming to, girls wanting to work on the robot???

Viva the revolution!

[OnyxFox]

You'd be suprised but from what I see females are more opnionated, they tend to be more vocal. What I'm trying to say is that it might get a bit catty now and than.

[KathieK]

I wouldn't say that females are more "opinionated" but if we are generalizing, yes, females may express those opinions vocally while males may be more physical in expressing theirs. I REALLY hate categorizing people by gender or anything else for that matter.

But that's my OPINION.

And here it is, almost 2006 and I can't believe this conversation is happening.

[Ebolagirl]

We have four girls on our team currently. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's more than Purple Haze has ever had before. We do just as much as the boys do too. I am the only Inventor person on the team. I am also "head" scout, and I do all sorts of robot and field building. For our other competition, BEST, I was also a driver. One of the other girls is our battery guy. The other two do building and miscellaneous administrative work that none of the guys want to do (like documentation). It is also because of us that our team displays any sort of appearal coordination on competition days. We take care of the spirit stuff, etc. The only thing we need now is a female programmer. I'll have to find one somewhere. Girls rule!!!

[Francis-134]

From my experience, the number of girls on our team has snowballed. It started with a few people and as word got around, more have joined. Personally, it seems as though girls have some apprehensions when it comes to joining FIRST, but after they see a few of their friends doing it, they get more interested.

[Jessica Boucher]

It just happens. Although recruitment efforts do have some effect, there are a lot of outside forces that could affect the team without even knowing.

This is true not only for the female/male demographic, but also for classes, race, education level, family income, etc. We're still such a young organization with a non-franchise layout...thus it's really tough to figure out a why, but congratulations!

As for the rest of this thread, back on topic, ladies and gents. All those demographic slicings not only have their weaknesses, but their positives...and it's easier to learn how to handle them now than later in life.

[tribotec_ca88]

Similar to our team's case...last year there were 5 of us, and since we had no senior gals all five remained on the team til this day. Then along came 4 more out of nowhere lol... I won't deny it, i'm thrilled with the idea. At times it seems as if the guys somehow tend to "take over"...not with the intention of leaving us out of things, but in our case they seemed to want to be more influential when it comes to making decisions. In other words, i got the impression that they always got the final call.
Not that numbers are all that important, mind you...either way it pleases me to see a sudden spark of interest from new students...but an increase in female participants has always been somewhat appealing...

[Lisa Rodriguez]

Girls on team = good
but don't forget, we can also appreciate the guys too, even though there's lots of them
Like Mrs K said, hopefully someday we won't even notice that "so many girls" are joining the team......as for right now, w00t kids are joining teams!!

guy, don't forget not to scare the new girls

[Goober!!!]

My team (1501) has no girls on the team and i don't know why??? but 1501 had 7 last year and now we have doubled to 14 i think i have lost count!!!

[Ashley Christine]

I cant wait to hear the ratios for this year, it really does seem like there are more girls. Its exciting.