ABSTRACT
In 1978, almost hundred years after the first woman had graduated from Iowa State University’s engineering program, Samuel Florman wondered in Harpers magazine why women failed to take the same existential pleasure in engineering that he advocated for men.2 Florman, a spokesman for engineers, claimed to have found the answer when visiting the lofty halls of Smith College, a private women’s college with an elite reputation. He could imagine the smart women students-all well trained in math and the sciences-‘donning white coats and conducting experiments in quiet laboratories.’ But he could not see these sensible, bright young women becoming engineers. ‘[I]t is “beneath” them to do so,’ he said. ‘It is a matter of class.’3 He believed that, given the option, Smith women with strong science and mathematical abilities would choose the sciences rather than the low-status profession of engineering. Florman then made a call to feminists to solve the problem of status in engineering by entering the profession. Unfair, to say the least! But his observation pushes us to take a closer look at the importance of class relations in women’s entry into engineering.
