How Women Engineers Do and Undo Gender: Consequences for Gender Equality
How Women Engineers Do and Undo Gender: Consequences for Gender Equality
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00406.x
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发表时间：
2009-07-01
影响因子：
5.8
通讯作者：
Dainty, Andrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Powell, Abigail;Bagilhole, Barbara;Dainty, Andrew
工程师作为男性职业的形象再现了工程师不适合女性的看法。虽然采取了各种战略，试图增加进入工程教育和就业的妇女人数，但成效有限。与此同时，有人认为，在工作中“处理”性别问题的方式有助于减少或增加两性之间的不平等。本文通过实证研究探索女性工程专业学生的工作经历，探讨性别表现如何解释她们的行为和态度。巴特勒暗示，做性别可能会导致我们被'不一'。这项研究中的女学生尤其如此，她们以特定的方式表现自己的性别，以获得男性的认可。在这样做时，她们采用了某些应对策略：表现得像男孩一样，接受性别歧视，获得声誉，看到优势而不是劣势，并采取“反妇女”的做法。这些策略是女性在工程领域文化化和专业化的一部分，但它们也没有重视女性。在“做”工程的过程中，女性经常“撤消”她们的性别。这样的性别表现并没有挑战工程的性别文化，而且在许多方面有助于维持一个敌视女性的环境。
The image of engineering as a masculine profession has reproduced the perception that engineering is unsuitable for women. While various strategies have been used to try to increase the number of women entering engineering education and employment, their success has been limited. At the same time it has been argued that the way gender is 'done' in work can help diminish or increase inequality between the sexes. Using empirical research exploring women engineering students' workplace experiences, this article considers how gender performance explains their behaviour and attitudes. Butler implied that doing gender can result in our being 'undone'. This was specifically found to be the case for the women students in this study, who performed their gender in a particular way in order to gain male acceptance. In doing this they utilized certain coping strategies: acting like one of the boys, accepting gender discrimination, achieving a reputation, seeing the advantages over the disadvantages and adopting an 'anti-woman' approach. These strategies are part of women's enculturation and professionalization in engineering, yet they also fail to value femaleness. In 'doing' engineering, women often 'undo' their gender. Such gender performance does nothing to challenge the gendered culture of engineering, and in many ways contributes to maintaining an environment that is hostile to women.