<p>I don’t think the takeaway should be about catering to someone, as if that someone is difficult to work with. The takeaway should be that all members of a team can contribute in different ways. The best managers know how to nurture individuals and facilitate groups. The best groups are often diverse in personality, approach, strengths, etc. and somehow figure out how to function as a well-oiled machine. It is not about catering. It’s about getting the most out of each member of the team so that the team collectively reaches the best solution.</p>
<p>This ad is a great(?) example of the issue: <a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube; While the two boys build, the girl plays with the blocks.</p>
<p>snowme, that’s it!</p>
<p>The whole point of my example is not that girls are pushed away from building, but that although they are interested in the same thing and they may even be interested in the same results (the girl in the video liked the tower), they often choose different paths. Unfortunately, the different paths also lead to different places or results.</p>
<p>So, if the girls are interested in engineering and that’s why they join a robotics team, then they need to go after their interests and parents need to be aware of the opportunities are available. Have the girls take risks. The students choose the subteams/tasks they want when they apply for the team; this means girls are not asking to be on build. Like I said above, ALL the boys on the business side are also on the build side while only ONE girl is on both business and build (my daughter and another girl are the two girls solely on the build side). The majority of boys are solely on the build side.</p>
<p>I would love to see more girls on the build subteam with my daughter. The team is not at all sexist or intimidating to anyone (the extreme shy introvert is often welcomed, well, by other extreme shy introverts) so many of the issues listed above (overconfident boys and girls pushed aside, etc.) don’t exist. It’s really the opposite; the boys are not pushy (except maybe the programmers) and their parents often fret that they aren’t assertive enough for the real world.</p>
<p>@Vlad, yeah Engr 100. It was in the sane class with the prof that ran GEECS (or w/e it is called) and went out of his way to say something about the girls in the class or protect them (“they can’t just write the report”). I guess with everything all together, then the skit where the one female just happened to be the “right” one without an issue, it just made sense thats the angle they were going for.</p>
<p>Slackermom, I think our Ds would get along well. My D15 is the only girl in her applied engineering class, where they have to build what they design. She enjoys being on the robotics team. She’s taken on the website, and builds when that doesn’t need attention.</p>
<p>My problem with the ad is that it subtly reinforces the stereotype that girls are helpers, not builders.</p>
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<p>Yes! I think people are overthinking this.</p>
<p>I agree - I just went and became an engineer, too. I didn’t think much about it. There were some obstacles along the way, but there were also times I was helped because I was a woman. Let’s be honest, there are a lot of companies looking to check the box that they hire and promote women and minorities. What I find striking today is that the male to female ratio in colelge engineering classes hasn’t changed that much since I graduated in the 80’s. Maybe that’s what this conversation is about.</p>
<p>VMT, my dad is still an engineering professor. I sat in on his structural engineering class a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the number of girls in the class! It wasn’t 50/50, but it wasn’t far off that.</p>
<p>MaineLanghorn - I am impressed! That is really nice to hear. I have seen the ratios at tech schools that are not as impressive, but those are probably unique because they are tech schools. Glad to hear this.</p>
<p>In my years of struggle with math, I had ONE good math teacher. Thank the heavens that she wasn’t just good, she was excellent, and was able to communicate math concepts in language for those of us who don’t “get” numbers the way some people do. I do not hate math, and I wish it wasn’t such a challenge for me, but it will likely ever be thus. </p>
<p>My older daughter loves math but she struggled in college because nearly ever professor who taught calculus did not speak English as a first language and didn’t have strong verbal skills. This wasn’t a problem for kids who speak the language of math, but my daughter needed a verbal translation.</p>