Girls on Teams

[DevilsTech99]

Originally Posted by shadowalker

I thnk grls probably do more thn a guy bcuz they want to prove they can do btr guys in any situation

Too true! We have to prove ourselves b/c guys dont believe we can. I joined this year and we have 7 girls on our team. 6 of us are new to the team. 3 are on mechanical, 2 on marketing, 1 on software, and me, the head of electrical

[chelseymelsey]

We have 3 people on our entire team and we all are girls. One of us works in programming, and one of us designing and building. One floats

[dscreen11]

Originally Posted by batbotcrewfrosh

Since we are an all-girls team, we have lately been interested in the roles of girls on co-ed teams. Some members of my team were doing a survey of the number of girls on teams and their jobs at the Buckeye Regional. We were very disappointed to discover that on some teams, girls were given only the job of cheerleader, or publicist. Continuing that, just please give the number of girls on your team, along w/ the number of students on your team, and what the girls usually do. Thanks a lot!

My team is an all-girls team so I can't really answer your question. And I can understand why you are upset (since I too am a girl).

[chinckley]

Originally Posted by chelseymelsey

We have 3 people on our entire team and we all are girls. One of us works in programming, and one of us designing and building. One floats

We too are a small team. Not all girls though. How are you going to handle competition? Who is going to stay in the pit as safety captain and who is going on the floor?

Good Luck...

Carolyn Hinckley

[MiniNerd24]

Originally Posted by DevilsTech99

Too true! We have to prove ourselves b/c guys dont believe we can. I joined this year and we have 7 girls on our team. 6 of us are new to the team. 3 are on mechanical, 2 on marketing, 1 on software, and me, the head of electrical

Don't worry about that DevilsTech. Luckily our whole team (including me) is nice enough to believe the girls on our team can do very well with what they are doing for the rest of the team.

[torra12]

yeah, my team is all girls as well, and its really interesting to hear about the work girls do on other teams. i think recruiting girls is important, but i also know that it comes down to the individual and their interests. on our team, though, we have plenty of girls intersted in building the robot..so maybe on co ed teams..girls are intimidated. i guess the best way to deal with it would be to have more involved female mentors....

[muffinxo]

There are 4 girls, but it feels like 3 out of 28ish members.

I'm head electronics
Kelsey is a machinist/ cooperate image
Paige does inventor and autocad design
- all three of us doing public relations and chairman stuff
and the fourth girl is strictly a welder

[ShotgunNinja]

We have about 3-4 girls (some never come, so I'm not sure). Although most of them DO fall into the stereotype mentioned above, there is one on our team who does actually help out with everything.

[Mitch1525]

on 1525, there are 3 girls, one on electrical / chairmans, one who floats and helps wherever needed, and me. I'm big on pictures, team spirit, and i learned the mill this year. This is my third year, and the guy on my team are still quite sexist. I took a welding class this summer to try and prove *yes i felt it necessary to prove myself* that I could help out, but the guys won't let me weld. Our welder is self taught and truthfully, is not perfect. I respect him and I believe that he does a good job, but he constantly puts me down and I'm quite sick of it. But I deal and I just try to help anyone that needs it.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions on getting rid of the sexism because our mentor doesn't seem very motivated to do anythying about it.

[Blue_Mist]

I'm guessing that your mentor is male, here. Try talking to your mentor and telling him that you do not appreciate his apathy. Apparently this mentor has lost sight of FIRST and most of what FIRST stands for- building the team. It stands for many other things as well, don't get me wrong, but this is most pertinent to the matter at hand.

Whether a team member is a guy or a girl makes no difference. The important thing is to ensure that each learns and becomes competent as well as inspired, leaving gender out of the equation. If a member of the team is being pushed down by other members, what does that make the team? As part of the Gracious and Professional organization that is FIRST, every team should be taking care of their own people, for it is the people which make up the team.

As for the boys, tell them that you do not appreciate it. This isn't a joke, and being FIRSTers, they ought to know better. These boys should know that you are capable, and should allow your competence to assist the team, instead of cutting off a vital resource.

[Boydean]

Originally Posted by elphie1990

(My father is the head advisor, so I get tossed around from group to group when people are absent. All of you who are advisor's kids will understand wht I mean )

Yeah, I know precisely what you mean. My dad is the coach of our team.

We have no girls(- two mentors) on the team right now, but it is an issue that we are trying avoid by next year.

[ManicMechanic]

We have 6 guys and 1 gal on our (FTC) team. The gal is the head programmer and a builder. The 2 mentors are male and female (myself). He takes care of food, room, and school administration, and I handle the robotic aspects and FIRST administration.

I have noticed some frustration about the treatment of women in engineering in this thread. Having been immersed in STEM (sci/tech/engineering/math) since HS/college in the late '70s and early 80's (ouch, that's 30+ years!), I wanted to offer my perspective and encouragement to younger women.

No doubt, life in STEM is not always easy for women, and I have experienced prejudice and disrespect in some predominantly male school and work environments. But alongside that, I have found other men who were encouraging, and some who bent over backwards to assist me because I was a woman. It's your choice to focus on the voices that bring you down or the ones that bring you up. If you need help, ask for it. In the rare situation when there are no encouraging voices, I have always found that a job well done is the most effective way to silence the scoffers -- good work speaks for itself.

One important aspect of gaining respect is knowing yourself and being realistic about your strengths and weaknesses. There are some girls who think they are being dissed for being girls, when the reality is that sometimes, they not respected because they think they are better than they are. As an EE major, I spent 60-80 hours/week to get mostly C's in EE classes, with only my math classes salvaging my GPA. I came to the realization that at best I could only be a mediocre engineer and instead went to graduate school in math, which I now teach at a junior college. There are women who are truly gifted engineers, but I'm not one of them. If you are a gifted engineer, you go girl! But if your gift is technical writing, don't let others tell you, "Girls shouldn't get stuck doing the journal." That kind of talk pushed me into an engineering degree that was unsuitable, and I had to go back to grad school to rectify it.

Women sometimes get opportunities that they wouldn’t have if they were men. When I was a senior, I receive unsolicited invitations to interview, even though I had a 3.2 GPA, while male classmates with 3.8 GPAs and more work experience were unable to beg interviews with the same companies. More currently, I know of a college that offers 2 engineering scholarships: anyone can apply for the first scholarship but only women or underrepresented minorities can apply for the second. Women get 2 shots at a full ride, while Asian/Caucasian males only get one, with a lot less competition for the second spot. It's not as easy for talented white males to get noticed, and we do them and ourselves a disservice when we gripe about the plight of women without acknowledging their challenges as well.

Should we make use of this "unfair advantage?" As compensation for the disadvantages that sometimes come with being a woman, I feel that making judicious use of any opportunity that comes your way is fair game. Perhaps because of my gender, I have an interesting track record with interviews: I have received a job offer for every job that I've interviewed for (except for fast food jobs I was turned down for while a student). But to avoid taking advantage of the situation, I have chosen never to interview for a job unless I am genuinely interested in the position, and once hired, I aim to do the job in such a way that my employer has no regrets. This includes refusing to take a job for which I know I'm not qualified.

Life is not fair (if it were, I would take my turn at being one of the world's 3 million hungry), but it doesn't have to be fair to be good. If you find your calling and the right niche in this world, you are blessed indeed, no matter how "high" or "low" you are in relation to others.

[Jim E]

Team 1523 been actively recruiting females to join the predominately male team.
It is starting to work. The girls are not seeking the robot captains positions ...yet, but they participate in the Robot-building, PR, Programming, Spirit, etc.

It is refreshing to see these 4-5 young ladies learn new skills without any hesitation. They are a welcome addition to the team and I look forward to the day when 1523 adds some female engineering mentors, who served on the team in HS.

[becca09]

Thats very sad to here that some teams that have girls that do cheerleading and sprit. On our team 904 we have 39 members and 11 females. The females are aloud to do what they would like to do. We have 4 females on build and the rest are spread out throught all the different cells. Our team is very open to let people do what they would like to help out with and we are opened mind to many things...

This year we have the most females out of 7 years.

Hope that other teams become more open to let females help with other things..

[QuietOne]

In my school girls walk into our room as they pass by at lunch, they ask whats going on. They seem interested but once they see the number of guys they run for they get intimidated and we never see them again.