Competition to get girls into STEM won by a boy

Surely any girl with half a brain cell would think 'sexist dicks i'd be better off not going into stem'?

On the bright side, however ill conceived the idea, its now got far more publicity than it ever would have done if a girl had won and there was no furore. So on the grounds of any publicity being good publicity at least it's got people talking about the issue. And we really do need many, many more women in some STEM fields.

That was my first thought too Clarence! An early lesson for girls thinking of a career in stem - get a neutral sounding name

*please excuse typos!

So apparently it was a public vote, but the first names were attached. People would have known there was a boy in the running. This makes me think of all those studies were identical ideas or applications have more worth attributed to them if there is a male name attached. If it was anonymous, it wouldn't have looked so dodgy.

(Though you could argue that a game controller doesn't really fit the brief of being something for the bedroom - my dc's have their consoles in the living room, as do many other peoples.)

Sounds as though the whole thing was half arsed. It says they had 'a couple of hundred' entries, which probably means they got a handful of schools involved who were prepared to use the competition as a class project, but not one that didn't involve boys.

Read this yesterday on Gadgette (great women / tech blog). Utterly depressing.

The conversation -

" let's call the comp "pretty curious" good pun, v girlie

Table of men nod

"Oh shit just briefed press and they said the names a bit sexist

"Let's add boys in! If it's for boys too name can't be sexist innit??"

"But we said its for girls"

"Yeah but Erm but... the promo is aimed st girls the comp is for both right? They'll buy that??"

What the hell on the competition name.

And what the fuck on a boy winning.

Just, WHAT!

Idiots.

Did nobody in that company question this 'brilliant idea'?

What the hell on the competition name.

And what the fuck on a boy winning.

Just, WHAT!

Idiots.

Did nobody in that company question this 'brilliant idea'?

Ugh. I'm glad I left you for British Gas, EDF....

First the name for the campaign sucks. 'Hey pretty girls! Let's take a few minutes away from the mirror to learn about science!!'

And the result of the competition is counter productive to their stated aim. They could have run a boys-only competition too, but no, that would have required a few brain cells.

What an Everest of fail...

Its ok tho cos the girls did 'really well' (patronising head tilt)

They had a campaign to encourage girls into stem. They then decided to have a competition which had the same name as the campaign but that was open to both girls and boys. It's a confusing message and someone in marketing needs to take a look at themselves.

The message to me is: Girls should be 'encouraged' into stem but only up to a point. When there's an actually something important going on, like a competition, then boys most be allowed in and they will win.

It can't be a great feeling for the boy who won either, to have this furore around it.

Just came on to post this too! What a bunch of absolute dicks

MASSIVE FAIL.

Argh this sounds familiar.

I work in a STEM industry and worked with the local college to set up a day to get girls into it.

It got completely taken over (by a man) who decided to call it 'geek chic'

I dont understand..WAS the competition a competition for girls or NOT??]

if it WAS, why were there even any entries from boys??

I love how the name of the competition reassures girls that males will still want to fuck them even if they are good at science subjects.

Fucking marvellous! What knobs.