Lack of Women in our Team [Archive]

tigergirl

10-12-2004, 05:47 AM

Hmmm... with the way you treat us, why exactly is it you wonder why there's only 2 of us on the team?? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_confused.gif

Besides, for the second smallest room in the entire workshop, those female toilets sure can hold a hell of a lot of crap (excuse the pun)!

Must say though, I've learned to live with the door slamming back in my face every time I go in because someone's put more tyres behind the door. Or taking the boxes off the toilet seat so I can get the lid up. Or copping a model car in the stomach if you don't walk out close enough to the left side of the doorway. Damn ... where's OH&S when you need 'em?!

Another important factor could be the overall female:male ratio in the engineering department ... now if only you could just come up with some way to get those nurses involved instead of perving at them through the one way glass you'd be sorted...!! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

But then I guess you'd probably never get any work done ... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Wilso

10-12-2004, 07:30 AM

So I was in our garage which is on the first floor of the Mechanical Engineering building when I heard a girl walking by outside and I heard her say "...and this is the nerdiest part of campus..." True story!!

Maybe if it wasn't for these false stereotypes we'd have more girls on the team. We're not nerds...are we? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

J. Schmidt

10-12-2004, 08:48 AM

We've got one girl on the team. She counts down the days to hunting season, owns 3 ford trucks and lives on a farm. She can also keep up with the guys when it comes to bad jokes and dirty humor; she fits right in. Considering the male:female ratio on campus is somewhere in the 60:40 range, I think there are a lot of women in the engineering program. Of course, they're all in civil engineering, not mechanical. I guess UWP's women prefer to build bridges, not cars.

Paul V.

10-12-2004, 12:49 PM

We have never had a girl on our team before. This year a quarter of our team is women!!!Its great. No egos, no BSing because they really don't know the answer to a question. They just shut up and work. And if they don't know something, they'll get a book and find out how to do it. And when they ask a question to a guy and he gives a BS answer, they'll research it and find the real answer to make sure. Trust me, you guys need chicks on your team. They are making incredible progress on ours.

Paul Vaughan
UAH FSAE

The guru of guru's

10-12-2004, 04:06 PM

Paul...so for example a woman would ask you how to turn on the lathe....and you might reply "you need to light a fire under it"....so i assue her response would be like......"hold on ill be right back i need to go to the libuary"

sounds like great team work http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

leclercjs

10-12-2004, 04:52 PM

Hi guys,

for us, it is a premiere, we finally have a girl on our team and she is incredible. Since the beginning, she is there at our meeting and she is currently working on our budget, sponsorships and other stuff I/We really don't have time to look. A girl in the team is really cool to have, it creates another dynamic.

Drum

10-12-2004, 06:37 PM

One of the two girls in our team has just reported there is now an 80kg crash dummy sitting on the toilet seat in the ladies room. He must have sneaked in overnight...

rjwoods77

10-12-2004, 06:46 PM

We have 2 girls on our team. One of them weighs 110 lbs and races small sprint cars and shes cute. We are hoping she'll get the best out of our car. Not to mention the possible weight advantage to the car if the average driver is heavier than her.

Drum

10-12-2004, 06:57 PM

Our crash dummy is pretty cute too. How about you post a pic of your 110lb sprint car racer and we'll post a pic of our 80kg crash dummy.

tigergirl

10-12-2004, 07:02 PM

Drum,

Will the pic of Woody be with or without the rotor-style wig someone made up for him?!

And since you think he's cute, I'll leave it to you to get him off the toilet seat so we can actually use it ...!!

Drum

10-12-2004, 07:09 PM

That would mean going into the girl's toilets tigergirl, none of the blokes in the team do that do they?

I think you girls will have to try to coax him out of there

tigergirl

10-12-2004, 07:24 PM

So I guess it was your alter ego (as opposed to yourself) who walked into the girls toilet right in front of me this morning?

Just like it must've been fairies who put all the rest of that stuff in there overnight after both us girls had left? Oh no, sorry, I forgot that there's a few non-female "girls" on the team, aren't there? I guess that's how the moulds got in there.

And as for Woody, I'd sooner use the upstairs toilets in 253 before I move him again.

Alejandro

10-12-2004, 07:28 PM

Our Suspension team leader is a girl... HOW ABOUT THAT!!! and she knows more about roll centers than some of the guys..and shes cute too..so a very dangerous combination!

james17

10-12-2004, 08:17 PM

We all thought the idea of having a girl on our team was real smooth, and it was, and we liked it. Some of us liked it more then others, lets just say (from experience) a good looking girl in the shop that gets along real well with your most productive senior team member is not always the best thing for speed of production. But it does make him alot easier to get along with...

Chase

10-12-2004, 10:09 PM

So i guess he couldn't use the excuse of being caught up in the shop if he is late for a date then eh.

we had one girl on our team last year that actually went to competition for some unexplainable reason. She was better at polishing than I so she did that for us atleast.
she quit this year for BS reasons.

This year we have a new girl on our team that is really productive and everyone seems to appreciate her being around. She is semi in charge of one of our side projects for next year and is doing well.

Frank

10-13-2004, 03:23 AM

We have a first year girl on our team, named Tania. She absolutely rocks.

She is very motivated, is prepared to get hands dirty, turn spanners, AND do the marketing / management / organizing type stuff with maturity beyond her years.

She is usually in a good mood, and for the skills she lacks (technical shit), compared to 4th year guys, she makes up for with motivation and an excellent attitude. She is very bubbly also. She is complete F1 trivia nut, and general racing fanatic.

The first time she met us, she was in high school and attending a uni open day. She stuck around for a while in the afternoon to help file chassis tubes (how cool huh?).

I think she likes Scott from Monash (he gave her a necklace thingy at FStudent).

Tania's has recruited a few other female friends to help out also.

bigfella

10-14-2004, 11:02 PM

Hi guys,
Our team leader for 2005 is a woman, and it looks like the TL for 2006 will be too (god knows she deserves it, what a trooper!). Both of them are heavily involved with this year's team. I think that the chassis group leader for '05 is a girl as well. Maybe the culture here is a bit different, I dunno, but the girls we get on the team are real performers. AND there's none of that macho BS that some of the guys come out with (self included).

Alan Gruner

10-15-2004, 02:18 PM

I found this quote yesterday that seems to fit.

"Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought
half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."

Charlotte Whitton

AmandaG

10-24-2004, 05:37 PM

Well Said!!!!

Amanda
UQ Racing

Driver_chick

10-24-2004, 07:35 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Frank:
We have a first year girl on our team, named Tania. She absolutely rocks.

The first time she met us, she was in high school and attending a uni open day. She stuck around for a while in the afternoon to help file chassis tubes (how cool huh?).

I think she likes Scott from Monash (he gave her a necklace thingy at FStudent).
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good God! I need to meet this chicky babe!
For starters she sounds like me in that she joined the team before graduationg High School ( I was already going to meetings before I had attended a lecture http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif ) and she likes Scotty too! Oooohhhhh... Scott is a bit of a hunk...

As for my opinion on the whole women in industry... I think that the fems need to stop harping on, get their hands dirty and realise that only women who ENJOY this sort of thing will get into it...

We have 3 chicks on our team this year and it looks like that there is gunna be a few more for next year too!

I think we need to start preening little girls the way my old man did. Barbie didn't get new clothes, she got new cars. And if her pink Stang convertible didn't have enough balls, Daddy would get me a petrol powered remote contol car that would do the job nicely http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Barbie would get from point A to Point B not just in style, but at speed also http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

AS for the whole engineering males not being nerds, may I alert you to the following quote on identifying an engineer:

Male engineers reach their peak of sexual attractiveness later than normal men, becoming irresistible erotic dynamos in their mid thirties to late forties. Just look at these examples of sexually irresistible men in technical professions:

* Bill Gates.
* MacGyver.
* Etcetera.

Female engineers become irresistible at the age of consent and remain that way until about thirty minutes after their clinical death. Longer if it's a warm day.

Safrica

10-24-2004, 09:39 PM

We started the year with one girl on our team. I joined round about March and then had another girl join us recently. We'll thus be bringing 3 to Melbourne and we have 5 signed up for next year - so far http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I think it's fabulous to see more and more girls get involved in FSAE. I was looking at the teams in FStudent and even though there wasn't 'heaps' of girls, there was still more than I expected....

I was talking to a few Champ Car teams this weekend at Indy, and Herdez was the only team to have a female "mechanic" on their team! It was great though, cause she was the Head of Mechanical - in charge of the entire rear end of the car http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif There are a few more females involved around pit lane - mostly involved in Radio communication, telemetry, etc though.

PS: I dunno about Bill Gates, but definately agree on MacGyver http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

DanO

10-24-2004, 09:43 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Driver_chick:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Frank:

AS for the whole engineering males not being nerds, may I alert you to the following quote on identifying an engineer:

Male engineers reach their peak of sexual attractiveness later than normal men, becoming irresistible erotic dynamos in their mid thirties to late forties. Just look at these examples of sexually irresistible men in technical professions:

* Bill Gates.
* MacGyver.
* Etcetera.

Female engineers become irresistible at the age of consent and remain that way until about thirty minutes after their clinical death. Longer if it's a warm day. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That is hilarious... but if all we have to look up to is bill gates(computer nerd) and MacGyver (fictional), i am afraid its a sad outlook.

As for women, last year we had 6 on our team.

One made excuses for everything she didnt do that she said she would

One just helped with administrative stuff

One did a great job on the fuel system

One bought a few materials and bent some tubes

One won us the Visteon cooling award with her design

One hooked up with our engine guy and greatly decreased productivity.... late nights were no longer spent building engines.....

That sums up my FSAE girl team member experience

Driver_chick

10-25-2004, 05:59 AM

Mmmm... hehehe.. MacGyver... You have to give the guy some credit though. A great spunk of the 80's- early 90's...

As for finding any other hot male engineers for you blokes to look up to as sex symbols, I can't really help...
Rowan Atkinson maybe(He did go to uni as an electrical engineer...)

As for the chicks DanLTU listed, I can say the same thing about MORE than 6 blokes we had on the team (Except the bit about hooking up with an engine guy... )But I know it is the same either way...

Its not like chicks are a bad thing for the team... And as you pointed out, it isn't always a good thing either... But I don't think any of this needs to be pointed out. A team member is a team member and they have to pull their weight. No matter what extra appendages they might or might not have. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Safrica

10-26-2004, 06:44 PM

Quote from DanLTU:
"As for women, last year we had 6 on our team.

One made excuses for everything she didnt do that she said she would

One just helped with administrative stuff

One did a great job on the fuel system

One bought a few materials and bent some tubes

One won us the Visteon cooling award with her design

One hooked up with our engine guy and greatly decreased productivity.... late nights were no longer spent building engines.....

That sums up my FSAE girl team member experience"

How many of these girls actually stayed on and how many do you guys have this year?

DanO

10-26-2004, 09:53 PM

all the girls from last year are gone, they were all seniors as was i. but i am sticking around to help. Dont know how many are around for 2005 but not too many have done anything yet.

There are quite a few more guys, although we have about the same ratio that actually do anything.

Dr Claw

10-26-2004, 10:00 PM

hmm, i think i can field this question for my old captain. NONE stayed on, which is a shame.

One made excuses for everything she didnt do that she said she would
she is probably at a wedding...no need for FSAE right now.

One just helped with administrative stuff
shirts-vs-skins-midnight-soccer/risk is no longer fun. she actually changed her shirt in front of me twice, but by some strange planitary alignment, i saw nothing. to this day, i cannot explain how that happened. puzzling.. she is also doing her chemistry degree so she isnt into fsae, or automotive

One did a great job on the fuel system
she is off with mazda doing rotations. no time for fsae

One bought a few materials and bent some tubes
i havnt talked to her in forever. must be busy with something though. her sister is cool though http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

One won us the Visteon cooling award with her design
She kicks ass, but is working now. to cool for school as they say.

One hooked up with our engine guy and greatly decreased productivity.... late nights were no longer spent building engines.....
no longer spent building engines? dont get me started! there are reasons why we finished our body on May 20th. they parallel the reasons why our engine went in arround may 16th. *sigh*. sombody check those dates...and be amazed.

as for this year though, we have 4 girls on our team. there used to be 5, but that number has shrunk.

-one is.......... (cannot begin to explain it, and neither could Dan the man).

-one is doing body/seat. doesnt have much to do yet.

-the other is a kick ass frame...lady. she was chassis member of the week, for two weeks running i believe and she is very cool.

-the OTHER other, is a graduate that hasnt stettled into a system yet. havnt talked much to her because...she doesnt talk much. i guess i'll have to update her.

the one that left, was pink hat heather, and i'll leave questions about her up to dan.

also, our team leader convinces his NEW girlfriend to sit in during our team meetings so i guess she counts. i dont understand how she does it, because our team meetings are where the seniors practice for their drama degrees. its...sickening.

thats about it for the girls of LTU, at least through 2004 and now 2005.

DanO

10-26-2004, 10:52 PM

lol, good explanation ken http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Driver_chick

10-27-2004, 08:00 PM

Just a question for the LTU guys though...
What is the ratio of girls that do jack all in your team to the ratio of guys that do jack all...
Just a question since you guys are focusing on the guys vs girls thing... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

DanO

10-27-2004, 09:57 PM

I was not saying that the girls are the only slackers.

I would say that ratio wise its pretty close. Its just that we only have a few guys that know what they are doing and those are the only ones you can count on. The girls may be willing to help and do help where they can, but none of them on our team have the "gear head" background to completely understand. (not trying to sound like a jerk, just speaking from my experience)

And finding a girl that can hold her own with the (good)guys in the shop is very rare, although not impossible and much appreciated when found.

Chris Davin

10-28-2004, 10:56 PM

Our team seems to follow the general trend. Last year we had 5 (I think) girls on a team of roughly 35-40. This year we have 6, nominally, but effectively we only have 3 steady members out of ~40. But, we had a woman on the team a few years ago who was an excellent engine team leader. So I guess it depends.

Michael Jones

10-31-2004, 08:37 PM

My take on it is a slice on the "twice as hard/half as good" quote above.

Being female in a male-dominated environment makes you distinct. This is not necessarily because these environments are sexist (although many are) - it's more of a general phenomenon (e.g., being Y in an X-dominated environment, with Y and X being what you will.) Simply put, you stand out.

Now, this can be beneficial. A strong female team member will distinguish themselves much easier than a similarly strong male team member. Of course, so will an incompetent one, and while the two contexts are conceptually identical, negative discrimination is a more of a problem since it is destructive in nature. Positive discrimination can be a virtuous cycle in the end - negative discrimination is inevitably vicious.

If you select team members based on consistent and rational criteria, your ration of competent to incompetent males and females should be equal.

What can screw things up is if you pick female team members exclusively because they're female or, worse, make some personnel decisions with the brain in your head and others with the brain in your pants. Then, you're likely to get more problematic female team members - but frankly, if you do, it's your own damn fault, since you're an idiot.

Again, I think this applies for any discriminant - be it sex, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, language, etc. If you're demonstrably or openly different, you will stand out. Positively spun, this may lead to virtuous cycles that cause you - and your accomplishments - to stand out, for better or worse. Negatively spun, you're much more likely to be ostracized, and this is rarely for the better, especially if similarly incompetent people get a free pass as a result.

Ideally, there should be no spin, unless absolutely necessary for functional reasons. For example, someone whose command of English is poor might be a great engineer and hard worker, but you might not want him to write the design review.

Handles

10-31-2004, 09:21 PM

thats all well and good as long as you 'PICK' your team, which a lot of teams dont have the luxury of doing...

Denny Trimble

10-31-2004, 11:22 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Handles:
thats all well and good as long as you 'PICK' your team, which a lot of teams dont have the luxury of doing... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Even though we get senior design project credits for this class, our faculty lets us require that prospective team members sign up for a full design/build cycle, and we hold interviews. This creates a hurdle for prospectives to jump over, and gives you a chance to formally say "you're signing up for a year of hard work".

Send the rest to the solar powered underwater basket weaving machine project...

Michael Jones

11-05-2004, 09:33 AM

I lean towards believing that the team should pick members. As Denny suggests, it does make organizational commitment formal and defined. For teams that receive course credit, it is of course necessary to have a roster of who's in and who's not. And, in cases where team members severely underperform, picking members allows such people to be fired as required.

That said, I've seen a couple of teams that don't have a formal selection process that do work well, and in practice Cornell's team is flexible enough to make use of volunteers and integrate new team members on an ad hoc basis.

In my view at least, the more self-organizing the system, the better, especially for teams the size and intensity of FSAE teams.

penelope

11-15-2004, 09:05 AM

Alright, sorry to keep this thread going, but it's a touchy subject with me. I'm the only girl on my team, and I have been since I joined the team a couple years ago. Being a woman in motorsports is really difficult. I was the only woman at Claude Rouelle' suspension seminar this year. That's one out of a hundred. I had to sit though him trash talking women drivers and female thinking and capabilities in general. It took all my self control not to storm out of that seminar.

As women in SUCH a male-dominated sport, we get this kind of treatment a lot. From the get go, I'm under pressure to prove myself as a competent engineer. Men that don't know me question every technical statement I make. This is hard, considering how much time I've put into these cars. And I know that there are other racer chicks out there who feel the same.

Every time I've wanted to quit the team, it's been out of frustration at being the only girl on the team. So I guess my point is that it's really cruddy to be a girl in the racing industry. Maybe somemore respect will keep us around.

RiNaZ

11-15-2004, 04:40 PM

I agreed that Claude did make remarks on women driving and thinking, but he only mentioned it once to my knowledge (correct me if im wrong).

I hope this would not stop any female participant from coming to the seminars because the stuff that we learn in the seminar outweigh the few remarks that he makes.

Just a side note here, girls on our team are the hardestworking members i have ever seen of my 5 years in FSAE http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Driver_chick

11-15-2004, 06:28 PM

For fear of being COMPLETLY ostricised by all members of my team and all men in general, let me take a crack at what you have said my dear...

I feel your pain I truely do. As someone who has been asked "Are you lost" when walking into the engineering buildings, to being told that there are no women in the field of race engineering, and hence, never will be... I know what you have, had and will continue to go through.

What we as chicky babes go through for the love of the sport is nothing short of a trip up Everest. We do lots, multi task, keep things rolling and all sorts of stuff in whatever we have chosen to do on the team... but as someone already said not too long ago, it is not enough unless it is twice as much as anyone else. I know that, I can see that... Some of the time...

But as a choice we have made in following our love and not being put off by bumps that come along the way, we are being the mould breakers, the stereotype SMASHERS... Little girls will one day look to the types of us as I have women in industry such as Sharon Hopkins who worked as an electrical engineer for the Arrows team.

It seems that whilist we may not want it to be true, our different appendages and the past patriarcle roles in this industry have meant that it has fallen to our generation of women to do this. Though we can't expect it to just fall into our laps.

This doesn't necessarlily mean picketting outside of the design tent or hunger striking at the after party... this means continuing to work hard at what we do, aiming to do nothing but getting to our final destination... I mean, it doesn't take brains... You only need to look at some guys on SAE, V8, Nascar, Indy teams (The list goes on for every category!) that don't do the hard yards, but get to where they are going...

The same goes for any ex-patriarcal role. It took time and many Bra burnings before we got to see the likes of Margaret Thatcher and such getting into parliment. But I can tell you this, she didn't JUST get the job cos she was a chick either. She was a SUPER bitch that kicked arse to get her way to the top and stay there. But not only that, she worked hard and did a GOOD job (Any guys/gurls in F-student can correct me on this... I'm just an ex-pat brat...).

As you can see, or so I hope... Being a chick in SAE esspecially takes balls. Not the litteral type though. It takes dedication to not be there just because you are a chick, not to fight because you think all men are arseholes and not to go on some Holy crusade to save the lost and deluded souls of those guys who think less of us for our tits...

It is to do what YOU want. To go where YOU want to go. To not be kept out because "Society" tells you this is how it should be... But to climb the ladder to success because when you wake up in the morning you can think of nothing BUT racing...

Don't let the man get you down sister. Get out there, shake that booty and have fun, because the less you let the man get you down, the more fun you will have, the less effect he will have and the better the racing world will be for having a different view inputted into the grand scheme of things...

http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

And just to let ya'll know... esp. my team, I know I am as big a chopper as the rest of the guys, so I expect to get crap put on me, I know it ain't sexisim... And Word up to the gurls, get yourselves a Wollongong Boy. No sexisim there... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Miss Muffins

11-15-2004, 08:57 PM

So, it would seem that chicks on SAE teams is a topic that interests more than a few of you. Well well...

Firstly, I must say that chicks being on any team shouldn't be underated, as they do provide many benefits and add a different view point and dynamic to the efficient running of any team.

As it happens, being a chick and being connected to a SAE team this year, I think I have a few helpful pointers for any other chicks that happen to wander into the unchartered territory of Formula SAE, and the world of manly men that goes with it (please note that those of you ladies more inclined towards feminism should probably stop reading now)...

- It's important for chicks to cook. Cooking is an excellent skill, and a skill that can be put to good use within SAE. The boys here love muffins, cakes, cookies and anything that they don't have to make themselves. Let's not forget, the way to men's hearts is through their stomachs. And besides, women do belong in the kitchen don't they??
- Chicks are at their most useful when doing things that men prefer not to. Point in case would be anything really to do with administration, marketing, PR, managment, budgeting and of course, the SAE Cost Report. Sure, some chicks do have excellent technical knowledge, but for those of us who are not that clever (myself included, but hey, I'm no engineer!), doing the useful things is an excellent way to contribute.
- Proof reading - let's face it, most engineers are terrible at spelling and grammar. A chick on your SAE team is a definate asset (provided, of course, that she herself can spell)
- Organising - chicks are, in general, more organised than men, so it makes sense to leave the running of this facet of the team to a chick, who will take more pride in seeing that things are done properly and on time
- Finally, and as would be obvious to most, chicks know chicks, who know chicks who know chicks, and if the boys I know on this team are anything to go by (these guys actually record chicks going up and down escalators outside their room!), then more chicks can only be good.

Having said this, I am actually the team manager for the 2005 team, and I have at present 3 other chicks on the team with me, not to mention a couple of grid girls lined up for the event...

Lighten up a bit will you all?? Isn't SAE supposed to be a bit of fun as well as a technical challenge???
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

TomF

11-16-2004, 05:49 AM

Well well, looks as though you've been completely indoctrinated by those guys there.

Keep up the good work chaps! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

DanO

11-16-2004, 08:37 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Miss Muffins:
So, it would seem that chicks on SAE teams is a topic that interests more than a few of you. Well well...

Firstly, I must say that chicks being on any team shouldn't be underated, as they do provide many benefits and add a different view point and dynamic to the efficient running of any team.

As it happens, being a chick and being connected to a SAE team this year, I think I have a few helpful pointers for any other chicks that happen to wander into the unchartered territory of Formula SAE, and the world of manly men that goes with it (please note that those of you ladies more inclined towards feminism should probably stop reading now)...

- It's important for chicks to cook. Cooking is an excellent skill, and a skill that can be put to good use within SAE. The boys here love muffins, cakes, cookies and anything that they don't have to make themselves. Let's not forget, the way to men's hearts is through their stomachs. And besides, women do belong in the kitchen don't they??
- Chicks are at their most useful when doing things that men prefer not to. Point in case would be anything really to do with administration, marketing, PR, managment, budgeting and of course, the SAE Cost Report. Sure, some chicks do have excellent technical knowledge, but for those of us who are not that clever (myself included, but hey, I'm no engineer!), doing the useful things is an excellent way to contribute.
- Proof reading - let's face it, most engineers are terrible at spelling and grammar. A chick on your SAE team is a definate asset (provided, of course, that she herself can spell)
- Organising - chicks are, in general, more organised than men, so it makes sense to leave the running of this facet of the team to a chick, who will take more pride in seeing that things are done properly and on time
- Finally, and as would be obvious to most, chicks know chicks, who know chicks who know chicks, and if the boys I know on this team are anything to go by (these guys actually record chicks going up and down escalators outside their room!), then more chicks can only be good.

Having said this, I am actually the team manager for the 2005 team, and I have at present 3 other chicks on the team with me, not to mention a couple of grid girls lined up for the event...

Lighten up a bit will you all?? Isn't SAE supposed to be a bit of fun as well as a technical challenge???
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

all i can say is WOW

penelope

11-16-2004, 09:26 AM

So is Miss Muffins actually a woman, or was that some kind of joke?

Wilso

11-16-2004, 10:41 AM

Seeing how miss muffins has one post and registered yesterday, it seems like a scam. Which sucks because this is exactly what penelope has to deal with, I would know, we are co-captains. Everyone that sees a girl on our team assumes she is the "organizer" or there to keep the real working men in line. Wrong, she does more work and is more knowledgeable than alot of the guys on the team.
I also see the other side of the story. My girlfriend doesn't know jack about cars and the only thing she has brought to the garage were cookies. Personally I could care less what role someone fills or which sex they are, as long as they contribute in some way to FSAE. As long as they tie back there hair when machining and don't wear hairspray when welding. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Miss Muffins

11-16-2004, 02:39 PM

Yes Miss Muffins is a girl, and it's no scam. God forbid that a chick would say it how she sees it and have a bit of fun with the topic. Maybe it's because I'm not an engineer...

As for being indoctrinated, hardly. My thoughts and opinions are my own, not anyone else's...

I think female engineers are fantastic in the same way that I think female builders, male nurses or any person that works in an environment traditionally dominated by one sex are. The female engineers we have here work particularly hard, but at the same time I don't think that they feel the pressure to have to do better just because they're chicks. Maybe that's because we have more respect for people as individuals, and put faith in the fact that they will work their asses off no matter who they are. Perhaps that's just a culture issue.

I think that sometimes some chicks want to be recognised as superior to men, rather that being equal. If this happens, can you imagine the chaos caused by men in years to come when they are burning their boxer shorts and singlets protesting for equal rights???

bigfella

11-18-2004, 01:24 AM

We do actually keep records of when particularly attractive girls go past the window. The eng. building here is shared with IT so not only is a sausage fest, it's a geek fest as well (so distinct lack of ladies). The only thing we have going for us is the amount of lecture theatres in this building, which results in mass drooling sessions on the hour every hour. From a non-single guy's point of view, it's a bit sad really, but still damn funny. Now that exams are finished, the view is singularly dull......
Miss Muffins isn't a scam; she's a business student. Nuff said! All the same, nice comments L.!
MM hasn't been indoctrinated; I don't think that's actually possible! More likely she (and one other particularly inspiring chick on the team) whipped our lazy arses into shape. I know it isn't exactly PC, but us fellas need a little mothering from time to time.

Alexandre D.

11-18-2004, 08:54 AM

The ratio is 1:30 in our team. Unfortunatly we can't say that's because of the faculty ratio because the mini-baja team has a 1:1 ratio. I think most girls think they will not fit in our team so they don't even bother to give it a try.
Those who want to do an engineering project seems to prefer the mini-baja team. I think that women attract other women. They see the FSEA with only 1 girl(that is not in engineering). On the other hand they see the mini-baja team with a lot of girl in the team. They also hear about it from other girls who are on the team or have a friend that is on the team. In the end they usually choose the mini-baja team.
That's unfortunate because i'm sure most of our team would be delighted by home made muffinshttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Safrica

12-08-2004, 05:55 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Miss Muffins:

- It's important for chicks to cook. Cooking is an excellent skill, and a skill that can be put to good use within SAE. The boys here love muffins, cakes, cookies and anything that they don't have to make themselves. Let's not forget, the way to men's hearts is through their stomachs. And besides, women do belong in the kitchen don't they?? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I honestly can't see how you have the time to do all of this... I spend somewhere between 6-13hrs a day in the workshop, 6-7 days a week. And even when I'm not in the workshop I find myself doing FSAE related stuff. I just don't have the time do baking etc, except for preparing the occasional lunch for the boys at testing and social / promotional functions.

Having said this however, I find that a good neck and shoulder massage works wonders to get rid of the FSAE tension that seems to build up come competition time... And you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen! 15min in the comfort of your own workshop and you're back to work http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif