The professional fate of woman engineers in the computer sciences: Unexpected reversals

Abstract

In the late 1970s, major changes in techniques and the job structure paved the way for women engineers to enter the French computer industry. At the time, propitious working conditions and career management policies allowed them to be upwardly mobile, while still investing in family life. Given its strong potential and rapid growth, information technology (IT) soon became the most attractive branch in the economy for female engineers. But the downturn in employment during the 1990s and “psychology-based” training reintroduced a sexual division of labor, as women were forced out of the “nobler” positions of engineering and software design, or even out of the branch altogether. It is those two recent trends – first the feminization, then the “defeminization” – of so-called masculine jobs, that are analyzed here.