Ladies That Crunch

The "Ladies that Crunch" group started on the 30th August 2016 after a bit of a whoo haaa re the way some people thought that women were portrayed on Robot Wars, @DrLucyRogers asked the  women of Twitter "Women of Twitter - What is stopping you putting a #robotwars team together pls? Technical skill? Time? Finances? Knowledge? Anything else?"

Within moments women began replying. myself included, citing money, technical skill, worried that they would be in a heavily male environment where they wouldn't fit in and lots of other reasons that meant they didn't get involved with building their own robot, even though they wanted to.

Not very far into the replies Twitter user @kateness asked "Is it worth mapping all our (generic) locations and trying to get teams together that way?", not long after @TeckyBecky another Twitter user set up the "Ladies that Crunch" google map for a "growing group of ladies interested in creating for #RobotWars". I suggested we added some info to the map detailing what each person had in terms of knowledge/experience/skills and Becky added the ability to do that. The idea is you contact Becky via twitter, give her your nearest town - mine is Derby - and she adds you to the map. We started out with just 4 women interested and a few days later there are 12 of us in the UK and a member in Tahoma, USA.

It feels like the start of something, and it would be brilliant if we can connect a lot of people together that can turn their skill sets in to something robotic. The idea with the Ladies that Crunch group is to pool our knowledge and put people in touch that live close by so they can maybe develop a plan that will lead to a robot project. Some ladies want to be on an all female team, personally I want to encourage girls into the world of Robot Wars, but also get them pursuing robotics as a career or hobby.

Some of the women cited not liking the war/fighting/combat/competitive nature of Robot Wars, I can understand that, but it shouldn't put them off doing something robotic, their are plenty of non-combat robotic projects and competitions happening around the UK, so its possible to build a robot for a purpose other than fighting.  Personally I think that some of the ladies are focusing too much on the combat aspect and neglecting the fact that before that 3 minutes in the arena, there is a lot of time and effort put in to the robot. Building a combat robot teaches you many things, it also teaches you a great deal about yourself.

Becky has gone on to create a group where we can hang out, offer each other help and advice and pool our knowledge and wisdom, again contact her via Twitter and she'll give you more details. Myself I'll offer my advice and experience where I can and do what I can to get more women involved with robots in whatever way they want, be that in the arena or building a robot project that could one day revolutionise the world. Being a child of the 1960's I grew up with the notion that girls were destined to do nothing but be wives, mothers or secretaries, and I've fought against these stupid notions from my teens until the current day.

Being part of robot team that consists of male and female I can say that the team works, not just because we're married, but because we both share a passion for the hobby/sport call it what you will, and because we each bring something unique to the team that helps the other one in their role. I do believe a successful team needs more than just a robot, it needs social skills, ideas that cross boundaries and as much support as possible. So myself, rather than all girl teams I want to focus on getting women and girls on teams, get them talking/doing and lose the notion that they're not good enough, that its beyond them and encourage them to bring to the arena whatever skills they have, get involved and live the dream.

I've learnt a lot about electronics, parts and build problems and triumphs, sure not enough to build a robot of my own, but the more you are exposed to what goes on and get involved the more you'll learn and the more fun it will become.

To those being put off by the 'male dominance' factor, I'd like to add that in my experience I think its true to say that I'm a roboteer first and a woman second. We don't have male roboteers and female roboteers, we're all just roboteers, I can't think of many other places where that happens, and wish that all the women worried that they will get sexist treatment could see what happens within the community, the things you read and hear amongst fans and public are not mirrored within the community.

So if you're interested, join the "Ladies that Crunch", even if you don't have engineering skills, you WILL have something that you can offer a robot team, don't be put off by the fact that the 'sport' is seen as primarily male. Women bring a unique set of skills to the arena that some of the male roboteers don’t have, and those skills make for a successful team. #girlscanrobot