Girls into Science and Technology : The Story of a Project

Originally published in 1985. This book describes the Girls Into Science and Technology (GIST) Project, an action research programme carried out in co-educational comprehensive schools in Greater Manchester. GIST simultaneously took action to redress the balance of girls in science and technology and investigated the reasons for the shortfall. The book highlights the world of the typical school science lab and craft workshop where boys and girls compete with each other and teachers treat the two sexes differently. It reveals how boys and girls view science and sex roles and how their attitudes changed during the course of the project. The GIST team worked with science and craft teachers to alter school factors which discourage girls from continuing with scientific and technical subjects. The author describes the reactions of teachers and pupils to intervention strategies, which included visits to schools by women working in technical jobs, development of teaching material more orientated towards girls’ interests and a humanistic view of science, observations in school labs and workshops, and careers education linked to option choices in school. In the final chapters she spells out the lessons to be learned for teachers and those engaged in training, and evaluates the national impact of the GIST project.