Starting Early: girls and engineering

This paper describes an action research project, ‘Girls into Science and Technology’ (GIST) which focussed on girls’ subject choices in the first three years in their secondary schools in the North of England. This age group was addressed because of the strong tendency of girls in state educational comprehensive schools to choose to drop the study of physical sciences and technical subjects as soon as the opportunity presents itself at about 14 years of age

The GIST project had two main purposes: firstly, to research further the courses and processes which lead girls to avoid physical sciences and technical subjects at school, and secondly, to devise school-based interventions which might begin to change the situation. The paper summarises the initiatives taken by the GIST team in conjunction with the ‘action‘ schools, and the research findings and final outcome of the project.