184 pages
234 x 156mm
ISBN: 978 1 85856 402 9
March 2008

This book presents an accessible overview of the recent history of UK initiatives designed to encourage girls and women into nontraditional fields such as science, engineering, technology, construction, and the trades. It examines girls and science projects in schools, training programmes for women in manual trades, activist groups for students and women professionals, and government-sponsored initiatives such as the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) and the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET.

Using archival and interview data spanning the 1970s to the early 2000s, it explores the aims and frameworks of the initiatives, examines the practices developed, and comments on the mixed results achieved.

Although there is policy and academic research on the causes of women's under-representation in non-traditional fields, the important initiatives designed to address the problem are under-researched. Consequently there has been little opportunity for educational practitioners, activists, policy-makers and scholars to analyse and learn from the practices and policies that were developed.

This book will be an invaluable aid to their reflection and for future development.

Alison Phipps is Deputy Director of Gender Studies and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sussex.