“Women in engineering”: a history and politics of a struggle in the making of a statistical category

The paper is a brief cultural history of the making of “women in engineering” as a significant statistical category for the American nation. The author´s main thesis is that national narratives, mostly made up by images of a nation in crisis and defined by powerful social actors and groups, have significantly shaped policies and programs for education and training of women in engineering as well as the latter´s significance as statistical categories for the American nation. The paper explores the political struggles over the past 40 years (1959-99) to shape the federal government´s attempts to educate and train women in engineering and in making them significant statistical categories for appropriate national needs, where what is appropriate changes over time