Gender neutral engineering: an impossible dream? ‐ the case of Eastern Europe

A total of 189 engineers, both students and qualified engineers of both sexes at two universities in Bulgaria, were given a questionnaire addressing the issue of why such a high proportion of engineers in Bulgaria were women compared with Britain. Answers were both fixed answer and open ended. The responses stressed the importance of the need for women to work for economic reasons and the role of the previous (communist) system in emphasizing the importance of both engineering and gender equity in its policies, including its educational policy. Qualified engineers were slightly more ready to stress these ‘system’ factors than student engineers. Engineering in Bulgaria had not been altered in any way which would take account of Western feminist criticism of engineering, but was perceived as being taught more theoretically and via lectures than in Britain. A contemporary strong switch away from engineering into economics and business was perceived. It is not clear yet whether gender neutral engineering will survive in Bulgaria.