International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an international organization operating youth robotics teams for elementary through high school aged students affects female and male students in different ways and to different degrees. This research studies the possible causes for this by collecting survey responses from male and female FIRST students. The results of this study indicate that female students are more likely to be involved in Business/Marketing and Build/Mechanical, while male students are more likely to be involved in Programming/Electronics and Strategy. Female students also reported enjoying the social aspects of a FIRST team slightly more than male students, who reported enjoying the technical aspects slightly more. Female students also reported much higher ratings of feelings of judgement/discrimination at FIRST events and on their FIRST teams. This suggests that male and female students are not equally engaged in both “technical” and “social” roles on FIRST teams.