The examined technical college, a post-secondary course in engineering for women that is, is a pilot project in Austria, which raises many hopes. By now some positive experience from other women’s degree courses and from results of international studies can be drawn. Coeducational programmes in themselves might not lead to equality. Especially in gender stabilised contexts, as for example engineering, single-sex educational initiatives can encourage learning off gender hierarchies.

At first sight this appears paradoxical but particularly in natural sciences and engineering the gender-segregation can contribute to higher gender equality. For this reason the technical college for women is of specific interest for scientists and experts in gender issues. Not least representatives of technical universities and technical companies will watch the outcomes of this pilot project and the results of the evaluation will also be compared with successful examples abroad. The consistent process evaluation will, on the one hand, ensure continuous feedback about the current status of the programme and, on the other hand, review the entire training. One aim of the project is the identification of factors of success and of stumbling blocks, and the development of recommendations for similar and/or further single-sex courses at technical universities. Another promising outcome of the current project might be its priming and promoting effect for Austrian educational programmes in engineering. Hopefully the pilot project will turn into a lasting institutionalised programme with many more to follow.

Our concept of a socio-scientific process evaluation study comprises an action research evaluation process, which in particular means that frequent feedback in the process will contribute to a continuous optimisation of the technical college.