Why is it that not many girls are into robotics?

[Jasmin]

It's disappointing to me that I'm the only girl that ever really shows up at the meetings. There's one other who's decided to show up more frequently, but that's about it. In total I think there's about five or six, but life happens, and they're not always able to make it. The guys outnumber us way too easily, and I'd definitely like to change that.

Girls are good for the team, even the mentors and teachers agree. ;P

[Gundamx92000]

for the record, the last 2 years Team 166 has been prodominently made up of girls and with an average team size of 30 or so thats not bad. funny that by reputation we builg big tough powerhouse robots rather than elegant things though, interesting

[cdawzrd]

We need more girls on our team. Right now, we only have one, and she only joined because she is the sister of an older member who no longer attends. She does PR stuff. I would really like to see more female members, especially those interested in the technical stuff.

You girls out there: any suggestions as to how we could try to recruit more?

Jonathan

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Gundamx92000

for the record, the last 2 years Team 166 has been prodominently made up of girls and with an average team size of 30 or so thats not bad. funny that by reputation we builg big tough powerhouse robots rather than elegant things though, interesting

Elegance is powerful. You should see our robot this year, it looks like avant garde architecture mixed with a suspension bridge.

[h0x4r]

was told there wasn't a lot of girls joining us do to our large amount of testosterone (i hope i spelt that right, maybe spell check....) cause some of the guys say stuff that end up scaring off the girls, plus the lower classmen get scared when we are arguing about stuff like designs, so they won't put their ideas out there, testosterone seems to be the root of problems, as i have been told

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by h0x4r

was told there wasn't a lot of girls joining us do to our large amount of testosterone (i hope i spelt that right, maybe spell check....) cause some of the guys say stuff that end up scaring off the girls, plus the lower classmen get scared when we are arguing about stuff like designs, so they won't put their ideas out there, testosterone seems to be the root of problems, as i have been told

Just the other day I was looking for my multimeter and the (darn) arrogant group of testerone molecules started hasslin' me. Sheesh... why can't they pick on someone there own size!

Don't blame your problems on chemicals.

[Adelle]

Being a girl, I find that most girls don't join FIRST because they are afraid of what other people may say because they are a girl and advancing for the future, but their friends aren't, and the teen years are a few of the most influential years of a girls life, especailly when it comes to the social role they play in high school drama. But the same also goes for males. Our team has 6 females on it, not including mentors(which is about 3 more).

[Iain McLeod]

We have four girls on the team this year: an artist/typist and three design and construction people.

I think robotics is mostly made up of guys because of the whole conditioning thing someone was talking about earlier...
I know one of my teachers was telling me last year about how in our school there used to be a 'Mechanics and car maintenance' class for the guys, and 'Powder Puff mechanics' for the girls. The education system has a lot to do with it, encouraging girls to take different classes than guys... And as Bryan (my teammate) points out from behind me, there is no mechanics Barbie.


I really don't notice much difference between guys and girls in the robotics room. They all act nuts anyway.

[Mousepad]

Originally Posted by Iain McLeod

We have four girls on the team this year: an artist/typist and three design and construction people.

I think robotics is mostly made up of guys because of the whole conditioning thing someone was talking about earlier...
I know one of my teachers was telling me last year about how in our school there used to be a 'Mechanics and car maintenance' class for the guys, and 'Powder Puff mechanics' for the girls. The education system has a lot to do with it, encouraging girls to take different classes than guys... And as Bryan (my teammate) points out from behind me, there is no mechanics Barbie.


I really don't notice much difference between guys and girls in the robotics room. They all act nuts anyway.

I dont see how this question is really relevant to Robotics as a whole. I see no other purpose for this other than to raise a useless issue. If there is lots of girls then great! if not then so what. Difference in sex shouldnt have anything to do with robotics, or engineering.

[elknise]

I don't know about your team, but our team's girls hold the team together. We have Ms. Saxton who is a mentor. Linda who does programming and electronics. Caitlin who is the captain of the electronics team. Philis who is the captain of our PR team and designed our awesome t-shirts and sweat shirts. Then we have Robin who works with the drive train and arm teams.

Idk what we would do without them.

[davelu]

We have 3 girls on our teaml, use to have lot more but we scared all of them away. it be really nice if our team had more girls....

[half geek]

My dad and I were dropping off my 5 year old sister at her friend's house a couple weeks ago. My dad mentioned FIRST to the parents, and their reaction was "It's too bad I won't get that experience, since we only have daughters." I couldn't believe this conscious prolonging of a gender stereotype, so I hinted that there were plenty of girls in FIRST as well as engineering. The parents continued to be skeptical, as if it was unthinkable for a lady to be doing such a manly thing.

This is where the problem starts. We should do something about it!
Therefore, our actions should include both short and long-term goals:
-Convince girls that are old enough to be students that it is OK for them to be in robotics.
-Convince the parents of younger ones that that they should not stunt their children's potential for interests based on stereotypes.

[sabrina752]

All I can say is girl power!

[angelc24]

When our team was first created the ratio of girls was 1/20 now it's 1/4. There is only one guy on the programming team and our drive train team leader is a girl. All of us contribute just as much as the guys to the actual robot.

[AngelShel29]

My sister, brother, and I were all involved with FIRST for multiple years. Go figure that my sister recieved a degree in Electrical Engineering... my brother is going to school for Criminal Justice... and I am in school for Mechanical Engineering... Hmm.. the 2 girls are in engineering, and the guy is is something else. Pretty interesting!