Why is it that not many girls are into robotics?

[kramarczyk]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

The more women we see coaching, the more girls we'll see participating.
The more women we see as lead engineers, the more girls we'll see committing to the team.
The more women we have as 'rock stars' in FIRST, the more girls we'll see celebrating math and science and the doors they can open.
The more women who serve as strong role models, the more girls we'll see applying for and obtaining scholarships in these areas.

Lead by example.
Go the distance.
Recruit mentors, team mates, parents, sponsors, and supporters that get this or will.

It's a journey - for some, it is a lifetime adventure in the form of a goal.

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to JaneYoung again!

That whole post should be spotlighted.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

That whole post should be spotlighted.

Agreed XD

I think that one of the biggest problems with getting girls to join/stay on teams is the gender barrier. Before high school, girls and guys don't interact much, and if they do, it's typically more on a "OMGBOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!"-type basis. So for girls, gaining acceptance on a team that's mostly guys can be...hard. Lack of acceptance is what has scared a few of my girl friends away from the team, along with a general disinterest in robots.

So basically... (Retention of female participation)=acceptance+interest+/-(already existing friends on the team)

Originally Posted by kramarczyk

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to JaneYoung again!

You can give some to meeeeeeeeeee! [:

[mhaake]

I joined FRC my senior year of high school (the second year of our team) and noticed something odd. I was on an all-girls team and we were very proud of where we had come in the year. We got to a younger competition and teams told us they were surprised to see an all girls team with a nice looking robot. They said straight to our faces they didn't know how well we would do tho, simply for the fact that we were all girls. After the first day of competition, we had teams coming up to us telling us it was simply luck that we were so good. As the driver of the team, I put up with countless drive teams telling me they were going to get the ball even tho they knew their robot was was less capable than ours. I listened for awhile, until I decided it was time to put the boys in their place. Saturday afternoon, we were second pick. By this time, we had teams coming up to us telling us how surprised they were that an all girls team could be so good. By the second or third match with our alliance, they knew we were the dominating robot and began to do the "Robette kiss" with us when their team was introduced (blow a wave at the camera/MC). We had all male drive teams blowing kisses.

This year I decided to be a college mentor and noticed little change. THis was noticed even after at the kickoff this year, team 2169's mentor made a speech about the season and made out team stand and told all the teams there to not underestimate the power of girls. Props to King TeC!

I think there has been some improvement on team's behalves of supporting girls; however, people will always have their stereotypes. When our team is faced with these boys, we stick it to them in the competition. However, we do it as a team. I would find it very intimidating to try to stick it to these same boys that underestimate our team if they were on my team and there were only 5 or so girls to be on my side (and im not an intimidated person - I have an older brother ....) On a slightly other note besides some boys not thinking girls can do what boys do, I've noticed some times boys think that girls are there only to flirt with. Our team gets hit on like no other when we show up at competitions and, although flirting can sometimes be a 2 way street, robotics simply isn't the place for it. Girls can feel pressured to flirt back simply to be nice to guys and I'm saying competition isn't right for that (but for more on that there is another thread about PDA that went on in Atlanta...)

One last side note that may not be 100% relevant. Our team applied for the Chairmans Award this year. We did not win and we understand why the other team that won was simply more involved. Do not get me wrong : I am not complaining that we did not win. The other team deserved it at the time more than we did. On our feedback, we were told we need more diversity and to bring more less priviledged people in the engineering world onto our team. We have 3 of 18 students that are of color on the team. Our school simply is all white (all girls Catholic school...). We were astonished to see that on our sheet since we bring 18 girls into the engineering world and if another team has 10 of the 40 girls they get extra points for having lots of girls . . . Just a side note that I thought was interesting that an all girls team was told that we were not bringing enough minorities into the engineering world (when most other groups aren't told that if they have girls on their teams.)

[Chris is me]

I have absolutely no idea why there aren't more girls in robotics, science, and engineering.

I've always been a part of teams with lots of girls on them. I was the only guy on my team for both of my years in FV/TC. Then I went and joined a team that had more guys but still several girls involved in every part of the team (so not just the "girl roles" or whatever stereotype exists that I'm nto aware of). It just seems like something that's never really been an issue for any of my teams.

I don't see what's so intristically different about science and engineering that girls would be predisposed not to do. Girls certainly aren't "worse" at robotics; I've encountered just as many good and bad all (mostly) guys teams as all girls teams. It just seems weird that there would be that stigma to begin with.

I don't really understand how specifically "all girls teams" are seen as great, however. Getting more girls into engineering is just as nice as getting more of anyone into engineering, probably even nicer as we kind of have to make up for hidden gender bias in things. I just don't see why restricting guys from joining a team accomplishes this goal any better than by just encouraging more girls to join. Why an all-girls team gets more media attention than a team that's gone above and beyond to reach a female majority has always puzzled me, since most all girls teams are from all girls schools.

I intend no disrespect to teams made up of all girls, especially teams from all girl's schools. I just think that if there exists an all girls team that turns down guys wanting to participate then they are "doing it wrong".

Oh, quick comment to the Robettes above: You guys had a really great robot in 10,000 Lakes, and you guys shouldn't have been available when you were in the picking process (you guys were in the 7th seed right? I would have pinned you guys as a 4 or 5 team). Perhaps there are more hidden biases at work?

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

The more women we see coaching, the more girls we'll see participating.
The more women we see as lead engineers, the more girls we'll see committing to the team.
The more women we have as 'rock stars' in FIRST, the more girls we'll see celebrating math and science and the doors they can open.
The more women who serve as strong role models, the more girls we'll see applying for and obtaining scholarships in these areas.

Lead by example.
Go the distance.
Recruit mentors, team mates, parents, sponsors, and supporters that get this or will.

It's a journey - for some, it is a lifetime adventure in the form of a goal.

Hey Jane you are almost leaking out the findings of our study! we have been taking data for two years and we are getting ready to write our report. I did not get to see you this year! I miss you!

[LilGrohnke2013]

The reason that I hear a lot is that I don't have the patience for that, or that's for nerds, and all kinds of that. I find it interesting that on our team we have 2 girls as captains, Bekah and myself. I am also the only girl on our build team (well my FTC team I'm a jr member on our FRC team, which that build team is 2/3 female freshman! woo girls!) I always try to get my friends into FIRST but I have only succeeded with one of my guy friends. It really disappoints me that there are so few girls. Truly it shows womens strength and will, really it proves that women are just as able as men to do things such as robotics. Sorry this is so long, but topics like this once I get going, I don't stop very quickly.

[Mish Mooney]

I have no clue, I love robotics.

The only creepy part was when I found out that at our regional, 80% of the guys wanted to "talk" to me. Creeppyyyyyy.

[bobwrit]

I think that the main reason why girls aren't joining robotics is the society teaches them that they have to try to fit in with the steryotypical 'girly-girl'. It's a shame, because I've seen some engineering designs from girls and they are REALY good, but they wont go into engineering because they would become socialy outcast(to which I reply, You'll gain acceptance from the other side of society). Sigh....

[bandducky511]

I (as a girl) think that many other girls don't realize what they can do on a robotics team. On my team (122) we are "dominated" by girls apparently. We have 3 girls, just 3 out of the 15 boys we have.
I also think that many girls think that robotics is "just for boys" and that all the engineering stuff is "not fun". Yet, there are some teams (all girl) that come out and prove this all wrong and show just how many girls love robotics.

[CallieJ]

I am on an all-girls team and I enjoy it a lot. We do well and we have great dynamics. We are also lucky because we share a lab with an all-boys team so it turns out about equal.

We do a lot of activities with younger girls to try and keep them into science and technology. I (and many of my teammates) were lucky to go to a middle school that stressed science and technology for girls. It even had required CS and robotics courses.

But we find that a lot of girls who go to traditional middle schools stop paying attention to computers and robotics. They are given thousands of messages everyday from their classmates, the media and even their parents about what it means to be a girl, and to be "popular" and "pretty". It sometimes happens in elementary school but it's a lot rarer. We did a fundraiser where we taught 4th and 5th graders about 10 types of engineering. If they had been 6th and 7th graders we wouldn't have had anyone sign up. Instead we had nearly 80.

I think that this is something that we all need to work at. It's definitely improving in FIRST and a lot of girls I know are interested in technology, even if FIRST isn't necessarily their thing.

Also, I heard a rumor that there might be an all-girls regional this year, and I think that might be a good opportunity to see how other teams are doing at getting girls into robotics.

[pyr0b0y]

I remember when I first joined our high school robotics team, there were about 5-6 girls....and they were all on the PR team. During the next 2 years they started to move into other areas such as animation and construction. It was nice to see that over 10 girls were on the team and they were the ones that were working on the robot everyday.....what a change!