Gilbert, Anne-Françoise | Switzerland
Anne-Françoise Gilbert is a Senior Research Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for Women and Gender Studies (IZFG) at the University of Berne (Switzerland). Her main research interests include gender issues, sociology of knowledge and qualitative methodology.
She graduated in geography at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and received her PhD in sociology from the University of Frankfurt/Main (Germany). Her doctoral thesis investigated the changing identities and cultural spaces of single women in Europe from the 18th to the 20th century (Gilbert 2001). She has participated in several research projects in the fields of women and gender studies as well as higher education studies, using ethnographic methods and in-depth interviews.
Between 2001 and 2003 she conducted a survey at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, where she compared the experience and attitudes of female and male students towards studying science and engineering (Gilbert 2004; Gilbert et al. 2006). The results of this study highlighted the importance of specific disciplinary cultures for the reproduction of gender segregation in the field of higher education. For her current research on "Gender and Engineering Cultures in Academy" she turned back to using a qualitative approach. This project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Project at IAS-STS: Gender and Engineering Cultures in Academy: the Case of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.
Technical universities have a long tradition as male institutions and engineering knowledge has been tied to the construction of a 'hegemonic masculinity' (Connell). At the time of their establishment at the end of the 19th century, the practices at technical universities were gendered in three ways (Berner): (1) types of technology: strategic domains, like electricity, were codified as male, while others, like architecture, were considered more appropriate for women; (2) educative practices: the pedagogical concepts institutionalized at technical universities implicitly referred to the model of the military academy; (3) Social relations: the educational setting represented a homosocial community of male teachers and students. In this context, the following questions are posed: To what extent do these caracteristics of technical education still apply today? Have engineering cultures changed under the impact of changing gender relations?
This research adopts a comparative approach drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two engineering departments at a technical university in Switzerland: mechanical engineering and materials technology. While mechanical engineering – along with electrical engineering – is an academic field that continues to resist feminization, materials engineering has attracted a rising proportion of women in the last decade. The question arises how these different contexts influence the gendering of practices and identities. The study focuses on academic (rather than workplace) cultures in engineering and on men (rather than on women). It aims at reconstructing the typical patterns of interpretation (Deutungsmuster) underlying the practices and identities of engineers. Moreover, it examines in what ways these patterns are interrelated with patterns of masculinity and how these patterns are affected by changing gender relations and a rapidly evolving technological context.
Selected publications
Gilbert, A.- F., Crettaz von Roten, F. & E. Alvarez (2006): Le poids des cultures disciplinaires sur le choix d'une formation supérieure technique ou scientifique: une perspective genre. In: Revue Suisse de Sociologie vol. 32, no 1, S.
Gilbert, Anne-Françoise (2004): Frauen in technischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Studiengängen. Studienmotivation und Erfahrungen im Grundstudium – eine Erhebung an vier Schweizer Hochschulen. In: Soziale Technik. Zeitschrift für sozial- und umweltverträgliche Technikgestaltung. 3/2004:19-21.
Gilbert, Anne-Françoise (2004): Erfahrung und Diskurs – Plädoyer für einen doppelten Blick auf qualitative Daten in der Geschlechterforschung. In: Bühler, E. & V. Meier Kruker (Hg.): Geschlechterforschung: Neue Impulse für die Geographie, Schriftenreihe Wirtschaftsgeographie und Raumplanung, Band 33, Zürich, S. 5-20.
Merz, M., Crettaz de Roten, F., Gilbert, A.-F. et J.-P. Leresche (Hg.) (2003): Science and Technology: Gender Matters. Science et Technique: l’enjeu du genre. Commission nationale Suisse pour l’UNESCO, Observatoire EPFL Science, Politique et Société, Berne/Lausanne.
Gilbert, Anne-Françoise (2001): Kampf um die Welt – Sorge um sich selbst. Lebensentwürfe und kulturelle Räume lediger Frauen in der Moderne. Königstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer.