Why is it that not many girls are into robotics?

[Liz C]

I wouldn't necessarily claim that upbringing has to do with it. By the time a person reaches high school age, they are most likely able to decide what clubs they want to join strictly based on what they like or what they are good at. And some guys can insecure/stereotypical about the whole robotics idea and its supposed "dorkiness" too. In the whole scheme of things, it wasn't that long ago until women started entering the field of science, let alone engineering, and I've noticed (even though its not entirely true) that robotics is associated with just engineering. Perhaps this assumed relationship has something to do with it...

[JulieB]

i really don't know why

but we have 4 girls
me: build and coach
girl 2: build
girl 3: inventor
girl 4 media

I like to take thing apart and a lot of girls like to gossip.
Yeah i love to gossip but i like to take thing apart MORE!!

[Koko Ed]

One requirement that our team has for all students is to participate in building the robot for at least one year so we don't automatically assign girls to the PAW room. This is so students get the full FIRST experince. We pay for it on the field but we don't just build robots, we build people so it all pays out in the end.

[tiffany34990]

yes there is still a lack of girls in FIRST... some may get discouraged because on some teams i know the guys don't let the girls do things because they are girls. and well yes that's why we have the RCU and i am the captain of the Southern Florida Chapter and i hope that more girls will join the chapter and union and FIRST in general.

[Erin Rapacki]

I wouldn’t say that there’s a lack of girls in FIRST. I attended a meeting with Paul Shay a month ago and he reported that 30% of FIRST students were female. Indeed, he hopes for 50%, but lets stop there. Don’t let FIRST turn into industry where there is reverse discrimination for the Caucasian male (they are people with feelings too).

If women wanted true equality we wouldn’t need a special club to achieve it. Being a minority is not an excuse for obtaining extra attention. Everybody in general should go out, get educated, try new things, test themselves, and they’ll be certain that they were hired for their ability and not because they have met a quota for a team or company. There shouldn’t be any handouts. The idea of fighting discrimination is to give the most qualified person the job no matter of race, color, or gender. That concept has been achieved; however, the scale has been tipped too far in the opposite direction (this is highly noticeable when entering college and/or looking for jobs).

Do any FIRST teams deny access for students of non-minority groups? I certainly hope not. FIRST is about inspiring High School Students, not girls and minorities exclusively. Teams should have open arms to any student who wishes to join and there are plenty of girls who do find their way onto a team. In general, I believe that high school is too late to get girls interested in science and technology unless they have some kind of lingering desire already inside them. If we wanted more girls who were really into building robots, we’d have to find a way to start young. It would seriously have to be a cultural infusion, which won’t happen easily. So, lets stop trying to use cunning to trick every girl into wanting to build robots and just make sure that every student at the school, town, or general area know that they have an option to join a FIRST team with open arms. A brilliant mind is a brilliant mind, and it doesn’t matter what race or gender has the ability to make a positive difference in this world. We need each and every one of them to contribute to society no matter how the percentages break down.

My basic point being: some people (not all, I do know many smart women & minorities who do fantastically well in school and work) take advantage of affirmative action instead of going out and educating themselves. In some situations it has gotten out of hand.

erin

p.s. CEO and Chairman of HP, Carly Fiorina, was ousted last week.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/15/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

[lalala]

I would join a FIRST team, but there aren't any close enough to where I live. I love robotics (I'm in Technology Lab 2, which encompasses all types of technology such as: robotics, CAD, CNC, Plastics, etc.). I would love to start a team at my school, but I'm in my last semester of high school. How long does it take to start a team and what types of materials would we need? (There's only one other girl in my class and we have the highest grades!!! )

[Erin Rapacki]

Originally Posted by lalala

I would join a FIRST team, but there aren't any close enough to where I live. I love robotics (I'm in Technology Lab 2, which encompasses all types of technology such as: robotics, CAD, CNC, Plastics, etc.). I would love to start a team at my school, but I'm in my last semester of high school. How long does it take to start a team and what types of materials would we need? (There's only one other girl in my class and we have the highest grades!!! )

Are you looking to go to a college/university? Maybe decide on a school that already has a team.

It takes at least six months to start a team. You'd have to start looking for sponsorship and have that fee secured by the time team registration ends in fall. You'd need a space to work, a high school to team up with, tools, and that's just the beginning! www.usfirst.org would have more information. However, when starting college, joining up with a team that already exists may be a little more promising when it comes to the ever-so-important issue of keeping your grades up.

[doyler]

We have 2 girls on our team - CAD and Mechanical

[Joe Matt]

Lucky for us, we have seen a 100% growth in girl members this year.

[Emily Pease]

On my team, I'm the only female college mentor out of at least 15-20 college mentors, but I actually didn't even notice that until we were making travel arrangements and I was thinking about who would share a hotel room with me. I guess that means that I don't feel singled out for being a girl! Either that, or nearly four years in the Electrical Engineering program at Northeastern has desensitized me. I have had quite a few classes in which I was the only girl out of 30ish students. It doesn't really bother me, because I don't think I'm treated any differently, but I'm optimistic about the future of women in technology.

[aziandorkess]

hmm.. more girls are getting into engineering though..
for example, our team is probably 60-70% girls, 30-40% guys. the arm group and programming group are primarily made of girls, there are a few girls in drive train and electrical. our community outreach is also primarily girls, but most probably have experimented with one building group or another... :shrugs:
it's somewhat true that more guys than girls tend to dedicate more time to FIRST... i often find myself in the midst of all guys, with maybe one or two other girls... hours after most people left... but more and more girls are starting to stay later, and becoming more interested.
all our engineers, unfortunately, are all guys... but change occurs over a long period of time... hopefully, there will be more girls involved... it'll take time though.

[Bremma]

Sadly, I am the only active female member on my team. One of the other girls is ont he website team, and another showed up for a few meeting earlier in the season, but stopped coming for some reason. This almost made it hard for me to be able to come to nationals, since I would be offsetting the hotel cost by taking a room to myself. We did get another gril that had helped us with organization stuff int he background to come and help the cost. I wish there were more girls on the team, and maybe next year their will be. Need someone to control all you crazy guys.

[AmyPrib]

I do think that all types of people should be actively encouraged to join the team and be involved in every aspect. I do, however, feel that some girls need a little more encouragement than others. Teams that have few to no girls on their team may have more trouble attracting more girls. Why? It's a comfort level thing, I think. It's easier to hold onto a group of friends than 1-2 individual girls, in some cases, and definitely easier if there's already girls on the team or at least a female mentor. They can be intimidated by all the males doing the "guy work" and not being experienced in it, and if the guys and mentors don't actively try to involve the girls, then they may never reach their comfort level in this atmosphere.

This past fall we followed the lead of Team 180, and held a "girls night" with the group we had recruited so far. I think it has positively affected their involvement. There were about 8-9 girls originally and we have at least 6 very active ones. This was not to be discriminatory or "special treatment". This was to get them introduced to the shop and equipment, without the entire team surrounding and overpowering them, so that come build season, they were confident in working on parts. We encourage it - and if they're not interested in it, we don't force it.. There are many other parts of the team that they can find interest in if they so choose.

If the the less aggressive girls dont' get a little bit of attention to encourage their involvement, they may slip thru the cracks... Some girls aren't always going to bust their way into the shop and say "show me how to do this, I want to learn", if there's a bunch of guys rushing around the shop doing their thing. They may feel like they'd be bothering others, and if the girls aren't close friends with them, they probably aren't comfortable being aggressive. I encourage mentors and the guys to make a conscious effort to include everyone, even if the kids look disinterested. Build season gets busy and you have less time to spend on teaching basics.. But that amount of time you do spend, either in the fall or during build season, can help shape the kids lives.
Many teams do this well, maybe some need to improve... I really don't know.... But it's just another possibility as to why girls aren't as active, despite the % of female members. It helps to try and twist recruitment to encourage girls to join as well - vs. just describing it as a robot building organization.

My two cents... being a girl and all...

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by JosephM

Lucky for us, we have seen a 100% growth in girl members this year.

Not having any to having 100% more?

[Lux]

I take issue with the idea posted earlier that encouraging girls to participate in FIRST is somehow an example of reverse discrimination. As other posters have pointed out, girls have, at least in the past, received the message that the science and engineering fields are not appropriate for them. Even recently, we heard the president of a prestigious university state that he believes women are innately less capable of achievement in math, science, and technology.

What does this message mean for today's girls? It means that the effects of the decades of continued discouragement linger, and that the attitudes still linger, are expressed, and probably even acted upon by certain individuals. It is only really in this generation that we start to see an increase in terms of girls participating in events such as FIRST robotics and studying math, science, and engineering in college. This increase speaks of a genuine interest among many girls to pursue careers in science and engineering, and it is necessary, now, to sustain this interest.

Accordingly, I feel that organization such as SWE and RCU have an important place in our society. These are not incapable, unmotivated women asking for special privileges or for success to be handed to them. These are like-minded, motivated, capable individuals who see a real issue and are actively working towards improvement and development. This is not dissimilar to people combining their strengths and resources to attain the right to vote, for example. While we would all like to believe that equality is a right granted at birth, we have seen from history, society, culture, and circumstance that for some groups equality becomes a right that must be fought for and earned.
Organizations who further this message surely have a legitimate place in society.

As a young woman who has been involved in FIRST for 6 years, who is a junior in aero/astro at MIT, who has worked for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Aurora Flight Sciences, MIT's mechanical engineering fluid dynamics lab, and who is currently a co-op at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, I would like to make clear that I have received a great deal of positive, helpful encouragement from both male engineers and professionals and have had great experiences in the workplace. However, I have also spoken with women for whom this has not been the case, and even for me this has not always been the case.

For example, when I first joined FIRST in high school, I had a difficult time getting some male engineers to listen to me and afford me the same respect that they freely granted to male students of similar age and experience. It was only through continued efforts for several years that I was able to achieve this goal, eventually becoming the driver from sophomore to senior year and being heavily involved in the mechanical side of things. At the same time, I had female friends who were genuinely interested in engineering and really wanted to make a contribution, but were discouraged and eventually turned away from engineering because of the continued discouraging messages they received. The discouragement can sometimes be insidious and very subtle.

Now, I'm a staunch proponent of equality. Let's stop discouraging girls from science and engineering. Let's get rid of affirmative action, but while we're at it let's get rid of societal constructs such as legacy admissions, which allow certain parties to hold onto their power by bestowing extra advantages upon their own group. Let's think about the people who get jobs and internships because their parents or relatives know so-and-so. Let's think about the person who doesn't have these advantages and has to overcome these significant barriers to entry. Let's base admissions and jobs on ability, and at the same time think about those who never have the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do. Let's think about all the ways privilege manifests itself. Now let's really level the playing field.

Will all of this happen overnight? No. This, I think, is the real point. Society is changing for the better, but not rapidly and thoroughly enough that the lingering effects of the past are wiped clean. Girls need to understand that they are capable of achievement in math and science. I once volunteered at a robotics event at the University of Rhode Island which involved programming Lego Mindstorms. I helped a group of three girls who were interested, but also very intimidated and didn't think they "could do it." They just didn't know where to start. With a little bit of basic explanation, they realized that they did understand what was going on and started thinking of some great ideas and got their robot to work. Sometimes all it takes is to get someone started.

Clearly, we are not done yet. If girls don't want to join FIRST or don't want to be mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, obviously that's okay. The point isn't to force anyone to be something they don't want to be. The point is that there are girls who are genuinely interested in science and engineering, but still may face discouragement or have internalized the message that they can't do it.

Compared to the past, we have it good. I realize this and am grateful. However, we still have a ways to go. I consider myself very fortunate to have always had great parents, teachers, and mentors who have supported me. We owe a debt to the trailblazers and to those who support us. It is their encouragement that keeps us (at least me!) going through various challenges I have faced, and I really feel that extending this encouragement to interested girls and guys will have a great benefit not only to them, but to society as well.

I apologize for the length of this post, but this is an issue that is very important to me. Thanks for reading.