The Power and the Pleasure? A Research Agenda for “Making Gender Stick” to Engineers

TLDR

The article proposes a feminist technology research agenda that examines how engineers embody the link between masculinity and technology, aiming to illuminate the durability of this equation, the mismatch between image and practice, gendered styles, and engineers’ shared pleasures that reinforce power symbols. The author synthesizes disparate evidence to investigate four themes concerning masculinity, engineering practice, gendered styles, and engineers’ shared pleasures. The study finds that engineers’ practices reveal fractured, contradictory constructions of masculinity, and that shared pleasures in technology reinforce engineer identity and serve as compensatory power symbols.

Abstract

This article seeks to open up a new avenue for feminist technology studies—gender-aware research on engineers and engineering practice—on the grounds that engineers are powerful symbols of the equation between masculinity and technology and occupy significant roles in shaping new technologies. Drawing on the disparate evidence available, the author explores four themes. The first asks why the equation between masculinity and technology is so durable when there are such huge mismatches between image and practice. The second examines this mismatch in the detail of engineering knowledge and practice to reveal that fractured and contradictory constructions of masculinity frequently coexist. The third theme addresses the suggestion that women and men might bring different styles to engineering. Finally, the author explores subjective experiences of engineering to argue that engineers’ shared pleasures in and identification with technology both define what it means to be an engineer and provide appealing symbols of power that act to compensate for a perceived lack of power or competence in other arenas.