Q&A Discuss: Girls on Teams

[Master_Cheez]

Out here in Colorado, Alpine Robotics Team 159's got two female captains, one of them the head of programming and the other cocaptain of the team as a whole. Also, we've got two girls working on public outreach, and one who's one of the best we have in the shop.

[gnat89]

Out here in Austin, TX, estrogen is essential! I'm one of two female student project managers on the WHS Chap Robotics team. Each of our 9 females on the team (out of 34 students total) has taken on such a leadership role, utilizing both their organizational talents and technical expertise. In fact, only one of our subgroup leads is male (we have women heading such divisions as build, marketing/business, media, and education/outreach).

But our rise to these leadership roles could not have occurred without a support network, a network that was decidedly male. Like many have said, oftentimes girls will find themselves relegated to a second-tier status in technical fields due to their sheer lack of experience. But rather than denying us for our want of training, the males on our team embraced us and taught us instead, communicating the secrets of the shop. I've never been treated with anything less than complete respect. And though we've had to earn our positions, we women have always been acknowledged for our merit.

Just yesterday, when fundraising and distributing outreach information at our school district's 50th anniversary, multiple female engineers came up to me and told me how proud they were to see women excelling in robotics. They, themselves, had faced much resistance in their professions, but were excited to have passed the torch so successively on to a new generation.

Well, anyway, we've been quite lucky, having both strong women and supportive males. The gender divide is so non-existent that I'll work hours at a robotics event and not realize until it's over that I was the only female present.

Because we realize how much the pursuit of robotics has affected our lives, we've sought to extend the favor to female youth at the Ann Richards School for Young Women leaders. By exposing them to science and technology at a young age we hope to dispel any lingering misconceptions about estrogen and engineering.


(apologies for the length, this topic is close at heart )

Natalie "Gnat" Craik
Project Manager
Chap Robotics
Team 2468...Appreciate! (feel free to smile, we all do!)
Westlake High School
Austin, TX

whschaprobotics@eanes.k12.tx.us

[AdamHeard]

On 973, girls are allowed the same privileges as guys.

We had three this season, one was a valued leader and did a lot of hands on work with the robot (assembly, machining, etc...). One did a tad bit of software, but mostly ran scouting and did a pretty good job of it (I have high standards for scouting, and she met them). The final just painted our crate, but she wasn't really that active of a member on the team because of other conflicts.

[XaulZan11]

I would take these reponses with a grain of salt. There is a lot more motivation for a team that has girls playing a big role to respond, than teams that have girls forced to be cheerleaders. I'm not saying that these teams are lying, but that the teams that have problems with lack of girls are a lot less likely to respond. So, remember that voluntary samples are filled with biases.

As for 1732, the two years I was on the team, we were made up of just one school, which was an all-male school. This year, I know we included students from the all-femal school, but I was not around to answer the question.

[XaulZan11]

Opps...can someone delete this...

[JaneYoung]

This is a great read for insight into teams that are developing in this area and what some of the trouble spots are as well as some of the growth, initiative, and acceptance.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=19560

Also, gnat89 is spot on in describing these aspects of her team.
I've had the privilege of visiting them in their working environment, the classroom at Westlake High School, and I've met the team leaders. We'll be seeing some good things coming out of this LSR Rookie All-Star team.

[Karin1649]

My team is small (about 12 members, 3 of which are girls), and I'm the Co-Captain and Arm Operator...plus it's my first year on the team.

[Katie_UPS]

My team is about 20-25 kids (some kids are on/off)
And only three of them are girls.
Renee is one the two team captains- She also heads chairmans, logistics, outreach and media type things
Janelle is our Animation Captain (but she's trying to be familiar with the shop).
And I'm an aprentance (sp?) welder and a help-when-needed-in-the-shop person.

So with our team, the girls kinda fall into the steriotype, but we're working to break that.

[Molten]

My team is made up of about 6 students who show up regularly and work. 2 of them are girls. 1 willingly does any job given to her. This does include tedious work on occasion, but that is far from all she does. The other 1 is completely opposite of what one might suspect from "just a girl" (I hate that phrase but it seems to be the mentality of the one who started the thread.) She is the co-captain.(the only reason she is not the captain is purely by her choice.) She does the paperwork (Once again, this is her choice. She did it her first year and decided to continue.) She is the only draftsmen on our team. As well as one of the head designers. She keeps track of the bot to make sure everything is coming along.

So, in conclusion... The girls that are hardworking are too busy to sit still and answer your questions. That is why you only found one type of girl in your survey.

[Abra Cadabra IV]

Team 2429 has a total of two girls out of twenty or so total members. However, one of them (me!) is the main driver and the other is one of our most dedicated members. (We don't really have official positions on our team; everyone does what they can.) We're a rookie team, so all of this will be subject to change next year, hopefully.

[Dancin103]

On our team there is usually an equal split between girls and guys. This year about 1/3 of the team is composed of girls.

When it comes to being an officer on our team (president, vice president PR/Marketing, Vice President Manufacturing, treasurer, secretary) there is always at least one girl in one of those roles. This year I was our team's president, our Vice President of PR/Marketing was a girl, as were our treasurer and secretary.

We have also had, and continue to have females work in all three of our team's departments. This includes PR/Marketing, Manufacturing, and Animation.

[Stephi Rae]

Last year (our first year) we had 18 team members and 3 were girls. Two sort of fell into the stereotype, one more than the other. One pretty much did the awards entries, one was a mascot and scout. I didn't really want to do the paperwork and volunteered for electrical. I ended up learning inventor, building the electrical panel, riveting (not pop rivets, real rivets) our ramp, vice president, and ended up as one of the team leaders. I started off kind of shy, not really sure how to be a real leader on the team, but I feel like I have grown so much!

As a senior now, we have about 30 students on the team, and still only 3 girls (we lost one due to the time commitment and gained one new one). One is still the mascot, but does a great job and really enjoys it and tries to help out as much as she can in the shop. The new one started to follow the stereotype and did the photography and posters, but we got her to do the majority of the soldering, and I expect her to help with electrical some next year. I started to take some more leadership, as well as taking on some of the writing things. I felt that I shouldn't be afraid of fallng into this "stereotype", because a leader would help with the writing, and that's what I wanted to do. I wrote our business plan for my senior project for school and have worked with a lot of the younger students to make sure that they are ready to become leaders as this year is the first time we will be graduating any students. I taught a freshman the electronics (I actually found a useful freshman! ), I was the first to learn how to work our new mill, I worked very hard on our Chairman's award presentation, I served as a part of the pit crew and drive team (robocoach/field checklist person) as well as working on some fundraising, a small amount of scouting work, and a few other things as well.

Two of the girls on our team are seniors. We want more girls on our team, but our school is already about 70% male or more becuase we are a math/science/technology/aviation school and girls just don't seem as interested. We are trying to solve this problem on both the level of the school, and the team. I shy away from going up to girls and saying "just becuase you are a girl doesn't mean you can't do math and science" because if someone said that to me, I would just think they are crazy.

Deep down I think that many of us just abide by the stereotypes but deny that they are there on the outside. It's become a silent stereotype. Nobody walks around saying "you can't do that because you're a girl" anymore, but it's still there. Maybe an attitude, and it could be partially the girls' fault to. I don't know what can be done about it, but it is still there. And I wish it weren't.

It doesn't affect me or what I do, but I see it affect the girls around me. Even the other two on my team. I've talked to them about it, but I don't know how to make them understand. If you go right out and say it, to anyone, they'll just become defensive and you won't accomplish anything. It's a problem.

[carla_rose]

This topic is something that I get asked a lot by people that don't really understand FIRST. My team is about 30 kids and we have 8 girls. About 5 of those girls are the PR people/cheerleaders, but they're still important. The girls on our team can do anything they want as long as they put the initiative in and try. This year I'm the human player and also the team welder. I'm also learning to wire so that next year when a lot of our boys graduate, I can take over.

While I do try to learn all the building and the mechanical stuff like the boys, I try to put my "girly" spin on things too. I actually rhinestoned my human player remote and the competition team's safety glasses, which we have gotten many compliments on

[ingrid]

Well on my team the roles the girls have are earned. However, we do feel like sometimes guys take over so we recently had an all-girls team at the Los Angeles Regional. We left our boys at home and it was awesome. Our girls got to do every single job. We got to drive the robot and we also had to fix it everytime we broke it because there was no one else who would do it for us. I had the opportunity to be on the drive team and ever since then I can't leave the position!! Even when we are with the boys!! So I recommend that every team give the chance to the girls to perform hte different jobs on a team in order for them to realize if FIRST is for them or not.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Wildstang has women in any role and has always welcomed women on the team. We have had an all women electrical crew, women on the mechanical crew and this year both driver and manipulator are women. However, if you want a real look at a great, all women team, you should contact Team 2177 The Robettes from Mendotta Heights, MN. This team was part of the finalist alliance in Minnesota and they are an awesome team. Everyone that I talked to knew tons about the robot, so inspection was really cool. Each of them is excited about the team and the drive team is engaged and knows what they want. Every team should look to the Robettes for guidance, they are an exceptional team.