Revisiting Engineering, Masculinity and Technology Studies: Old Structures with New Openings
Keywords:
Engineering, masculinity, technology, gender equality, fatheringAbstract
In this article we draw broadly on two different research traditions, Gender and Technology Studies (GTS) and studies of gender equality policies in the welfare state, to explain gendered change and stability in the engineering work force in Sweden. Our results draw on a series of qualitative investigations of the engineering workforce over a period of twenty years, and verify change as well as stability. In particular, we locate change in relation to new parenting and fathering discourses. We argue that these discursive changes have profound consequences for work-life balance, and career and life preferences for a new generation of men in the engineering workforce. By revisiting some of the formative assumptions of GTS in regard to the conceptual triad of engineering, masculinity and technology, we also identify the slowness of change in the strong material and symbolic relationship between technology and masculinity.
&
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
