"Gadget Camp" Takes In Girls, Turns Out Budding Engineers

[Meg Galuardi]

I think that it is good to have some girl only programs like this. In my experience, when these things are co-ed there are a LOT less girls than boys in them. Just because girls attend an all girls camp doesn't mean they won't be able to function in the real world; I went to all girls camps every summer from grade school through high school and I do just fine befriending and working with guys.
The point isn't to separate girls, its to give them an opportunity to explore their interest in science and technology in an environment with less peer pressure, and to let them meet other girls with similar interests and abilities when they may not know any in their own school.

 

[Abedeus]

I will say, as a male in advanced courses, and someone who went to an engineering summer camp,

It sure was a sausage fest.

Well, I spent 3 years of junior high school in an IT-esque class (Math-IT focused). 30 people in class, 20 dudes.

 

[Smiles]

Wow, I didn't know there were so many people who have never heard of "boy scouts"

:\

 

[Ariseishirou]

Now cue the mass quotes calling me stupid. As if i care.

This is a trite and ridiculous argument. There are literally thousands of boys only camps in North America alone, and no one has come to shut them down. That you would do this to a single girls only camp when no one is doing it to the boys only camps is spiteful, misogynistic, and daft.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Now cue the mass quotes calling me stupid. As if i care.

This is a trite and ridiculous argument. There are literally thousands of boys only camps in North America alone, and no one has come to shut them down. That you would do this to a single girls only camp when no one is doing it to the boys only camps is spiteful, misogynistic, and daft.

It IS trite and spiteful, yes, and so is every feminist group that tries to shut down any boys-only camp/club/school/group/function, yet when they get together and take it to the US government, the entire Affirmative Action wing or whatever federal group handles the "oppression" of women steps in, fines the people running the group and forces it to disband just because they hung a "No Girls Allowed" sign on their clubhouse. So we take the higher route, we be the big man and don't stoop to their level, and what do we get? Shut down while they get free reign.

I'm not an optimist. I don't expect equality in terms of social status and rights, so the best I can hope for is equal oppression and that is a damn depressing prospect.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

"I can't believe it, people want to be segregated and isolated from their fellow people? Well...'Aint that a kick in the head..."

 

[Mythrignoc]

According to Sharris, a camp that teaches these skills is necessary because, "Not letting your children learn the hands-on component of the theory of science is killing us as a nation. You have to stop giving kids books and start giving them tools."

While I like the idea of the camp itself, this statement really bugs me.

It implies that books are inherently a bad thing for girls (hell, for boys and girls even), which is insane. I'm all in favor of teaching someone a practical skill, boys and girls alike need to know things like how to cook and clean for themselves, how to maintain a car, how to do taxes and create budgets, etc etc. But I cannot excuse sacrificing knowledge from books for it.

It's the same logic that says "lets worship god but there's no need to read the -whole- bible, lets just pick and choose our favorite parts that are most convenient for us."

 

[Aethren]

This one time, at gadget camp...

Really? I was the first one who thought that? Oh well, nice idea anyway, sexist as the gender restriction may be.

 

[samsonguy920]

As effective as this might be to getting more women interested in engineering careers, which can be quite rewarding, I have to wonder what the repercussions might be when these girls are released into a field that is apparently still dominated by men. It is still going to be hard for them to get a job and even harder to keep it or advance in it because it will still be dominated by males.
What there should be more of is encouragement of coeducation in order to weed out misogyny and ignorance between the sexes so there can be more equal footing in that manner. This separate gender camp is doing nothing but swinging the seesaw the other direction and only hurting things even worse. Isn't about time we got out of the 19th Century already and stopped acting like immature kids afraid of girls?

 

[Smiles]

Now cue the mass quotes calling me stupid. As if i care.

This is a trite and ridiculous argument. There are literally thousands of boys only camps in North America alone, and no one has come to shut them down. That you would do this to a single girls only camp when no one is doing it to the boys only camps is spiteful, misogynistic, and daft.

It IS trite and spiteful, yes, and so is every feminist group that tries to shut down any boys-only camp/club/school/group/function, yet when they get together and take it to the US government, the entire Affirmative Action wing or whatever federal group handles the "oppression" of women steps in, fines the people running the group and forces it to disband just because they hung a "No Girls Allowed" sign on their clubhouse. So we take the higher route, we be the big man and don't stoop to their level, and what do we get? Shut down while they get free reign.

I'm not an optimist. I don't expect equality in terms of social status and rights, so the best I can hope for is equal oppression and that is a damn depressing prospect.

source please? Where are people filing lawsuits against boys only camps and shutting them down? there are plenty of certain gender only camps as well as co-ed camps, the only thing unique about this one is that its teaching engineering.

 

[Erana]

This only this sex is the dumbist thing that came about. Congrade your teaching them something they will fail at becuase they become unable to work around the oppisite sex. There is an all girls Collage near me. So far no one in the area will hire from there becuase the women are unable to handle the real world. If you teach they are diffrant they will think they are and act as such.

Yeah, me and my alum friends from an all-women's colleges are doing so terribly. We don't know how to deal with anything in the real world.

And they don't even have a job yet! They're just piddling around at places like Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Yale, doing these "Graduate degrees" and something about medical somethings....

And me with men? Its outrageous how socially inept I am. I mean, with the casual conversation and this "Hanging out" stuff... Clearly living with two men was a horrible choice because I have no ability to exist in the same room with men because I went to an all-women's college!

*Gasp*

Guys, I just have to put it out there: If a women gets an all-female education and can't handle men in the "real world," then its because they were already socially-impaired.

 

[IceStar100]

This only this sex is the dumbist thing that came about. Congrade your teaching them something they will fail at becuase they become unable to work around the oppisite sex. There is an all girls Collage near me. So far no one in the area will hire from there becuase the women are unable to handle the real world. If you teach they are diffrant they will think they are and act as such.

Yeah, me and my alum friends from an all-women's colleges are doing so terribly. We don't know how to deal with anything in the real world.

And they don't even have a job yet! They're just piddling around at places like Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Yale, doing these "Graduate degrees" and something about medical somethings....

And me with men? Its outrageous how socially inept I am. I mean, with the casual conversation and this "Hanging out" stuff... Clearly living with two men was a horrible choice because I have no ability to exist in the same room with men because I went to an all-women's college!

*Gasp*

Guys, I just have to put it out there: If a women gets an all-female education and can't handle men in the "real world," then its because they were already socially-impaired.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much." Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, scene II

 

[YesIPlayTheBagpipes]

SPAI SAPPIN' MAI UNDERWARE DRAWER!!!
Mon Dieu!

 

[Aedrial]

Wow, I didn't know there were so many people who have never heard of "boy scouts"

:\

Ironically over in Australia we just have Scouts, which is unisex. Then there's Girl Guides.

OT: It would be nice if we just scrapped the whole 'segregation-based-on-sex' and just made them all unisex. I don't like the idea of anyone being left out of a program that they would like to participate in on something as trivial as which chromosomes they were born with.

 

[jimborious]

This only this sex is the dumbist thing that came about. Congrade your teaching them something they will fail at becuase they become unable to work around the oppisite sex. There is an all girls Collage near me. So far no one in the area will hire from there becuase the women are unable to handle the real world. If you teach they are diffrant they will think they are and act as such.

Yeah, me and my alum friends from an all-women's colleges are doing so terribly. We don't know how to deal with anything in the real world.

And they don't even have a job yet! They're just piddling around at places like Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Yale, doing these "Graduate degrees" and something about medical somethings....

And me with men? Its outrageous how socially inept I am. I mean, with the casual conversation and this "Hanging out" stuff... Clearly living with two men was a horrible choice because I have no ability to exist in the same room with men because I went to an all-women's college!

*Gasp*

Guys, I just have to put it out there: If a women gets an all-female education and can't handle men in the "real world," then its because they were already socially-impaired.

I believe that is the perfect example of a parry-riposte, well played.

 

[Thaluikhain]

What? People are trying to counter an inequality?

As a young white male, I can tell you this is obviously wrong.

 

[jimborious]

Wow, I didn't know there were so many people who have never heard of "boy scouts"

:\

Ironically over in Australia we just have Scouts, which is unisex. Then there's Girl Guides.

OT: It would be nice if we just scrapped the whole 'segregation-based-on-sex' and just made them all unisex. I don't like the idea of anyone being left out of a program that they would like to participate in on something as trivial as which chromosomes they were born with.

I agree with your thoughts, however i think there needs to be an important distinction made for social organisations with a potential age limit of say 15-16. Purely because i don't see the harm in letting social groups like the scouts or guides remain single sexed, i don't see the harm in letting kids enjoy a same sexed enviroment when their young. As an example as a kid i was in the Beavers then Scouts (Beavers is just scouts but for under 8's) and loved the fact that i was doing activites with just boys, when however we had a joint camping weekend with the local guides group we all had less fun as we where constantly forced to mix when we really didn't want to. Later on whilst at high school I did The Duke Of Edinbrugh award (its kind of a comminity service/camping for those who don't know it) and i prefered the unisex approach because by then we'd all grown out of the urgh girls/boys mentality you have as a kid.

Wow didn't realise I'd rambled a bit so in summary single sexed social groups for kids fine with a uni sex approach later on.

 

[Aedrial]

Wow, I didn't know there were so many people who have never heard of "boy scouts"

:\

Ironically over in Australia we just have Scouts, which is unisex. Then there's Girl Guides.

OT: It would be nice if we just scrapped the whole 'segregation-based-on-sex' and just made them all unisex. I don't like the idea of anyone being left out of a program that they would like to participate in on something as trivial as which chromosomes they were born with.

I agree with your thoughts, however i think there needs to be an important distinction made for social organisations with a potential age limit of say 15-16. Purely because i don't see the harm in letting social groups like the scouts or guides remain single sexed, i don't see the harm in letting kids enjoy a same sexed enviroment when their young. As an example as a kid i was in the Beavers then Scouts (Beavers is just scouts but for under 8's) and loved the fact that i was doing activites with just boys, when however we had a joint camping weekend with the local guides group we all had less fun as we where constantly forced to mix when we really didn't want to. Later on whilst at high school I did The Duke Of Edinbrugh award (its kind of a comminity service/camping for those who don't know it) and i prefered the unisex approach because by then we'd all grown out of the urgh girls/boys mentality you have as a kid.

Wow didn't realise I'd rambled a bit so in summary single sexed social groups for kids fine with a uni sex approach later on.

While as you've stated it does work in cases, I just dislike the lack of option. 10 year old me was incredibly disappointed when I was told I couldn't spend time with my friends(who were female) in a more socially productive environment (not sure if that makes sense) because I was male. Although that's probably just me. The entire situation is a double-edged sword. I just think that removing gender segregation is just one step of many to remove the social stigma associated with sex.

 

[callmegreen]

I'm sorry .. But did you just say.......

An ALL girls camp.......
For engineering gadgets ....

So a camp full of Sexy.. Female Engineers who can build cool shit while keeping up an Intelligent conversation.

I CAME EVERY WHERE

Also I Think the whole unisex camp is fine.
A few reasons would to prevent those little shits from having sex.
Another reason is because we feel more comfortable around our sex
because when I was in school I felt better asking questions around other guys cause I didn't care if I made a mistake around other guys but I didn't want to embarrass my self infront of the girls