ABSTRACT
This chapter raises various issues for discussion about science education for girls and women. It deals with the loss of enchantment with science among women educational writers, the failure of the science education literature to address or explain that loss. The chapter suggests a way to recapture the early delight and harness it to change the science education experiences of the majority of girls and women. It summarises the contemporary debates on girls, women and science education, and outlines two bodies of literature which tell a different story. The chapter also outlines how the two sets of materials can be used to refocus current debates. It argues that research on the enchanted will be more likely to help us design attractive science education for the 1990s. The chapter focuses on lost enchantment. There are two places where women's enchantment with science can be found: the reminiscences of school girls and students collected in institutional histories.
