When I was growing up I had a horse. I used to go riding with the boys nearby. They had trail bikes. Girls liked horses. Boys liked motorbikes.
I knew boys with horses too but they weren't quite so full of the horsey passion. They didn't read horse books and have horse toys. I'm going to generalise here. The horse has been feminized.
Once a prime technology, the vehicle and engine of our civilization, the horse was overtaken by industrialization. A workhorse required care and control. This was predominantly a male industry. Men were very involved in every aspect of horse, passionately. The racing industry is like the ring around the bathtub when the rest of the bath has been drained away.
What does this have to do with robots? Well, the boys like robots and most of the girls don't. They still like horses. Creating more opportunities for girls to be involved with robots may not work when the whole industry is so productive of masculinity. However, if the robot world could be made more horsey, maybe then things would change.
Just a thought.
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