ABSTRACT
This article is structured around four interrelated themes. The first briefly explores some of the equations between masculinity and technology that arguably contribute to the continued exclusion of women from engineering. It asks why this equation is so durable when there are frequent and visible mismatches between masculine images of technology and actual practice. The second theme examines more closely the mismatch between image and practice with findings that point to contradictory constructions of masculinity in the detail of engineering knowledge and practice. It also highlights the tendency for engineering to be conceived in dichotomous terms and considers how this relates to gender dualisms, if at all. The third theme explores the contested suggestion, from both “diversity” politics and standpoint epistemologies, that a stronger presence of women in engineering design could change the shape of artifacts. This debate takes us to the heart of wider debates about gender essentialism, but the evidence is limited. Finally, the fourth theme picks up the challenge in the title of this article-to explore subjective experiences of engineers, particularly their pleasures in technology and how this may be linked with their ambivalent relationships with power. I conclude by encouraging further research to “write gender in” to our understanding of engineers and engineering practice-as necessary steps in better understanding, and destabilising, the technology-masculinity nexus.
