Engendering Engineering: An Intellectual, Institutional, and Social History of Women's Engineering Education in the US

Iowa State University, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract SES # 0217330 "Engendering Engineering: An Intellectual, Institutional, and Social History of Women's Engineering Education in the U.S." Amy Bix, Iowa State University This project traces the history of technical training for women in the United States from the 1800s through 1980s, concentrating on forces which transformed engineering from a male-defined field to its current status as a permanently yet tensely co-educational discipline. Bix presents a series of case studies showing how colleges approached engineering coeducation, how administrators and faculty in different institutions at different times dealt with both practical problems and social questions about attracting and integrating women. This work further examines the history of female engineering students themselves, looking at their attitudes and actions in light of changing opportunities and obstacles during the early twentieth-century, World War II, and the Cold War. Finally, analysis of events during recent decades discusses the role of support groups such as the Society of Women Engineers and the ways in which women worked to gain control over their own future in the masculine world of engineering. This research represents a multidisciplinary approach to science, technology and society, combining history of engineering and professionalization with issues in U.S. history, education, women's studies, and policy. To date, there is no comprehensive account of how women's engineering education developed. Bix's work builds toward such systematic analysis, addressing fundamental questions about technology and gender. This book on the engineering education of women promises to attract widespread interest across scholarly disciplines. For historians of technology, this work should add new dimensions to current understanding of American engineering. It should also carry significant interest for students of American history, women's studies, sociology, and education. Finally, this book should have a timely appeal to a broader audience, including female engineers and male and female engineering educators themselves, who have already expressed interest in better understanding how events of the past connect to ongoing debates about the place of women in engineering and in engineering education today.