pic: We left the boys at home

[Erin Rapacki]

The gender bias in boys and girls starts when they are born. Cartoons, TV, magazines, movies, parents, EVERYTHING starts separating the two genders as to what they can and cannot do. Society sets up girls to not be interested in science and technology... plain an simple. Its an extra BIG hurdle nearly every woman in sci/tech has to get over at some point in their lives whether they're young or old.

Its a worth-while hurdle to get over, sci/tech has its rewards as a career path.

Guys get a head start and the small things mattered (toys, comic books, cartoons, dads, sports, etc...). I understand that guys need motivation and inspiration too... but men have a long history of being involved in sci/tech already. Women do not - its a relatively short history.

Many, if not most, girls are behind in their confidence when it comes to sci/tech than guys by the time they reach high school. Its all psycological, the guys and girls may have the same experience level, but girls also want to feel USEFUL to their teams... so they step more towards the 'girly' roles.

I don't mean to offend any of the girls who got involved with the tech stuff right away... you rock!

So I'm just trying to explain this to the high school guys posting in this thread; girls need some time to work within their comofort zone as a CONFIDENCE builder. All-girls teams work well for this purpose and its a good way to get started in sci/tech. Once they've gained their confidence (seeing the robot work knowing THEY fixed it), then they'll have no problem working with guys and, eventually, in the real world.

I think the culture is changing... step by step. We all just need to understand that girls need to have personal ownership of a design detail or project that they can build their confidence around, and let them know that their ideas benefit the team.

erin

Oh, and one other thing... what did you want to be when you grow up? A vetrinarian, doctor, fire-man, teacher, astronaut? Do most kids DON'T even know where their iPod comes from, and most parents are in no position to tell them. I've met a number of older women who were never exposed to sci/tech until they were middle aged; they went back to college and switched careers. A few of them really wished they had something like FIRST when they were younger. The girls in FIRST today are SO CLOSE, they are almost there, but its up to the mentors to help them build their confidence by letting these girls have ownership of design details and let them know their technical ideas are valuable.