| This book presents an accessible overview of the recent history of UK initiatives designed to encourage girls and women into the fields of science, engineering, construction, and technology (SECT). It examines around 150 groups and projects such as classroom-based action research interventions, after-school and residential courses for pupils, support and networking groups for women SECT students and professionals, and training programmes for socially excluded women. Using archival and interview data spanning the period from 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 which have been achieved. There is a substantial body of policy and academic research concerning the causes of women's under-representation in non-traditional fields, but the arena of initiatives designed to address the problem is under-researched in itself. This means that there has been little opportunity for educational practitioners, activists, policy-makers, and scholars to analyse and learn from the practices which have been developed. This book provides a key reference point for such reflection. |
