School of Social and Political Science

Description

1 January 2004 - 1 January 2006

This ESRC-funded research project was conducted by Dr Wendy Faulkner of the Science Studies Unit. It was prompted by both scholarly interest – in apparently durable ‘equations’ between masculinity and technology – and by policy concerns – about the continued predominance of men in professional engineering. Unlike much previous research on the topic, its focus was not on women engineers per se but on engineering as ‘communities of practice’, including men engineers as well as women. By bringing a ‘gender gaze’ to engineering practices, cultures and identities, it sought to reveal any subtle or ‘taken-for-granted’ gender dynamics operating: are these more comfortable to, and supportive of, (more) men engineers than women engineers?

The research design sought to conduct detailed investigations of engineers and their work, combining ethnographic methods of observation (through job shadowing) and interviews, principally in three sectors: software development, oilfield services and building design.

The central scholarly contribution of this work lies in the detailed evidence about how gender is performed and constituted as an integral part of ‘getting the job done’, and of the complex processes of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’ in engineering communities of practice. A second overarching theme is a trenchant critique of the conventional gendering of the technical/social dualism. Time and again, people’s talk ‘performs’ these stereotypes, but their actual practices and identities diverge. The research found no empirical evidence for the common claim that women engineers have better people skills than men engineers. (See forthcoming article in Social Studies of Science, 2007, ‘Nuts and Bolts and People’.) On a policy level, the study points to several areas where ‘culture change’ is needed in engineering:

• Much could be done to improve the process of ‘becoming’ an engineer, and so increase the retention of both women and men engineers – through good practice in engineering education and in the support of junior engineers at work.
• If the engineering profession is to overcome its image problem, it must break down stereotypes about gender and about engineering. The profession must also promote and celebrate a ‘broad church’ image of engineering – as social as well as technical, with room for diverse ‘types’ of people – if it is to attract and keep talented people in engineering.
• Employers must nurture more inclusive workplace cultures if engineering is to be more welcoming to women. There is a crying need for sensitive and sustained efforts to increase awareness amongst engineers about the numerous subtle gender exclusive and inclusive dynamics operating in engineers’ everyday interactions at work.

These findings have been extremely well received by practitioners and policy makers. In November 2005, Dr Faulkner gave a public webcast lecture at the Open University on engineering workplace cultures. In December 2005, a policy workshop was held with an invited group of 15 practitioners – from women into engineering organisations, engineering companies and professional associations – to discuss preliminary research findings. Participants commented that the study had provided for the first time solid evidence of things they knew to be an issue (a great endorsement of ethnographic research). Following this workshop, the research report was passed to Meg Munn MP, the Minister in the DTI responsible for the Government’s work on women in science and engineering which prompted a request for a private briefing with her and DTI staff.

Genders in engineering report

UKRC Research Briefing Leaflet

This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC ref: 000230151), and has the support of the WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) Campaign and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Researchers: Dr Wendy Faulkner

Contact: Wendy Faulkner