Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: three decades of UK initiatives

By Alison Phipps, Director of Gender Studies, University of Sussex

Available from Trentham Books Ltd and Amazon

This book provides an accessible overview of the recent history of UK initiatives designed to encourage girls and women into non-traditional fields such as science, engineering, technology, construction and the trades. Using archival and interview data spanning the period from the 1970s to the early 2000s, it explores the aims and frameworks of a number of these initiatives, examines the practices developed, and comments on what was achieved.

There is a substantial body of policy and academic research concerning possible causes of women’s under-representation in non-traditional areas of education and work. However, the arena of policy, activist, and educational initiatives designed to address the problem is under-researched as a phenomenon in itself. Directories of the various initiatives and overviews of some of the conceptual frameworks being used have not been brought together into substantive macro-analysis. This means that there has been little opportunity for policymakers, educational practitioners and activists to analyse and learn from the politics and practices which have been developed. This book is a key reference point for this community.

My PhD thesis was also focused on gender and labour market issues - an analysis of the international field of initiatives in the early 2000s. You can download the abstract here and you can also find weblinks to some of the initiatives I looked at here.

If you have any questions about the book, or would like to request a copy of the PhD thesis, please .