Girls are still undermined?

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I am not going to be an Engineer when I grow up.
I am going to be a doctor.

I don't know very much about fabrication of parts, manufacture, etc.
I am always happy to discuss design.

I did not do Public Relations my first year because I was a girl.
I did Public Relations because I write well and I organize well.

I agree with Elise. There is no appropriate ratio, there is no set mark. Because of my team, I will be an Engineering major. That change in interest from some random science to Engineering major happened over the course of my Junior year. I never consciously said "I want to switch." I realized it gradually, as I met people from other teams and worked with them. I realized it as I met Engineers, I realized it as I understood the message of this program.

FIRST does not mean "For Inspiration and Recognition of Working in the Machine Shop." It means, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." One half of that statement is science, and I love science. 3/7 of my classes this semester are hardcore science.

I leave you with one message:
Do not try to put me behind a drill press because I am a girl and unadvantaged.
Do not assume that I am planning to pursue a career in humanities just because I have fun with PR and the activities that come with it.

Teach me to be an Engineer. I am ambitious, I am willing, but I am interested in the S in FIRST, not as much in the T. That's personal preference. We're different. That's fine. We can still work together.

- Genia

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

2. Engineering is NOT manufacturing.

in fact, I always feel very uncomfortable if I have to man a drill press, or solder circuit boards, or assemble prototypes at work, because that is not what Im being paid to do. In a pinch I can, but if Im doing fabrication and assembly work all day long something is seriously wrong with the project!

How true! Same here in a different area. I work in Composites. If I'm doing layup something is seriously wrong or our techs are too busy. If I'm bagging parts it is because the techs couldn't figure out how to do it. Which means it must be really hard or somebody screwed up in the design phase.

[OZ_341]

We feel one of our missions is to provide new experiences for every kid on our team. On our team we don't let anyone stay in their comfort zone for long, boy or girl.

We have many girls on our build and drive teams. Why??

When a girl on our team says, I would rather not drill holes or drive a robot.

Guess what they are doing next meeting!

After that they can logically decide if they would rather build or do something else like promotions or art work.

Thats one way we make it happen on our team.

[Denman]

Last year we had 4 girls. One of them was team capitan but tended more towards the chairmans etc sides out of choice along with another of the girls., another was a whizz at cad and graphics stuff, and did a lot of stuff for other things including welding and cutting etc, not so much on the first bot but on our other things like the featherweight competition. Then finally there was one girl who would do just about anything she could, more towards the bui;lding side. we tended to let people do what they wanted as long as they did something.

[Deacon Blues]

All the girls on our team have wanted to do PR work, and as head of PR that is fine with me. We do a lot of work and any help we can get is appreciated. I think it's awesome for women to take an interest at all in a male dominated field. It's a real problem if men are forcing them out of engineering aspects, but it's the same if you assume women should be taking more of an interest in building than PR.

[+()c|D]

Girls are as much of an asset to any team just as much as guys are (unless of course they freak out when they get coolent on their hands and run out of the shop ). But being serious, there is no difference with our team, there are girls that know how to machine way better than I do (the same with guys). If there are any teams that find girls to be less of an asset, I simply say that it would be a great idea to take a step back and give them a chance.

[sheltie234]

The boy to girl ratio on Cyber Blue this year is 6:5!!! I'm so happy that more girls at our school see that robotics is amazing!! And, we helped start an all girls team this summer!!

[Nathan]

Why are all these threads about girls being treated unfairly cropping up now?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Why are all these threads about girls being treated unfairly cropping up now?

I have a couple of thoughts about it. Nothing more than an opinion though.
School is back in session or getting back in session and that kind of triggers the begin cycle - enter, check in CD, see what's going on - and sometimes maybe often, if you are experiencing a problem or asking questions in your team about different aspects, you will search in CD and see if any threads have addressed the topic.

Girls on robotics teams is something that is discussed and sometimes it can be difficult to be a lone girl or a very small group of girls - so they search and find threads, post a thought and it goes from there. Maybe someone has a new thought they add or a new poster has never seen the thread and adds. This happens in all topics but sometimes at the beginning of school and the beginning of build season you will see some of these threads crop up. It isn't a bad thing, it is a good thing. For example, I get very excited when I see programming discussions. Programmers on many teams don't often have much time to get done what they want or need to so it is always good to see how teams address programming and what their thoughts are. It doesn't take away from the other aspects of the robot, just as the discussion of girls doesn't take away from the other members or aspects of the team. Discussion, communication, exploring topics is always good when done well and handled appropriately.

Just a thought.
Jane

[Arefin Bari]

It will be a miracle the day this world looks at Girls and guys on the same level in the "Engineering World."

Now my personal opinion (This maybe a little harsh and I will try to be as nice as possible about this topic):

Guys, women think a lot different than we do. If they have their mind set on something, they will keep working on it until they get it right or until they get it done the way they want it. If a girl wants to build the robot... let them. In my experience, I have mentored teams where the group consisted guys and girls and honestly, the girls I have worked with are heck of a lot dedicated than the guys I have worked with. I personally hate it when I see a girl get pushed away just because she is a "girl." I refuse to pass any knowledge onto any guy who refuses to work with a girl.

Solution? We can come up with as many as we want, but in this society of engineering where male are dominating, it's hard. It depends on individuals how they treat a woman.

[ebarker]

#1) I agree with Jane about traffic into CD rising at the beginning of school. I don't have access to the site analytics but personal observation sez things have upticked a good bit here with the beginning of school. And this is an long running thread.

#2) In my lifetime women have made dramatic inroads into law and medicine (and other fields). In the old days women didn't enter many fields because they essentially couldn't. Today, we are struggling to bring women participation in engineering and science on par with law and medicine.

I'm going to make a statement that would not have been 'PC' 35 years ago with the womens movement, but the normative woman and normative man are different and respond to a little different motivational career stimulus. Wow. It is important to understand the differences.

Last year we were 2/3 young women, and as of now the new team is almost perfectly 50/50. Using a combination of recommendations from something called the EWEP, our 'guest program', social networking, and working to make sure everyone gets a cookie things have managed to work out. So far, so good.

Nothing against the young men on our team, but without the young women we would not have achieved what we did last year. These young women have the focus and the drive to keep things on track and get done what needs to get done. It was truly a team effort.

[GaryVoshol]

Two years ago at Atlanta, our team was asked if they were from an all-girls school. No ...

And then it dawned on them. The drive team, the most visible portion of a team, was all female, including a female engineer coach. The male driver we had used all year was ineligible to travel because of grades, and another girl was the best choice to fill out the team.