These papers provide an investigation of the contribution made by women to the traditionally male-dominated industry of engineering. Women engineers are looked at in an historical context, and from a cross-cultural and socio-economic perspective.

Women engineers have been in the public limelight for decades, yet we have surprisingly little historically grounded understanding of the patterns of employment and education of women in this field. Most studies are either policy papers or limited to statistical analyses. Moreover, the scant historical research so far available emphasizes the individual, single and unique character of those women working in engineering, often using anecdotal evidence but ignoring larger issues like the patterns of the labour market and educational institutions. Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges offers answers to the question why women engineers have required special permits to pass through the male guarded gates of engineering and examines how they have managed this. It explores the differences and similarities between women engineers in nine countries from a gender point of view. Through case studies the book considers the mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion of women engineers.

1. Multiple-Entry Visas: Gender and Engineering in the US, 1870-1945 2. 'Am I a Lady or an Engineer?': The Origins of the Women's Engineering Society in Britain, 1918-40 3. Educating Men: Women and the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, 1880-1930 4. A Women's Challenge: The Petersburg Polytechnic Institute for Women, 1905-1918 5.Maintaining the Walls: Women Engineers at the Ecole Polytechnique Feminine and the Grandes Ecoles in France 6. Precarious Victories: The Entry of Women into Engineering Studies in Austria, 1900-1945 7. Women in Army Research: Ambivalent Careers in Nazi Germany 8. Mobilising Women Power: Women, Engineers and the East German State in the Cold War 9. A Pyhrric Victory: Greek Women's Conquest of a Profession in Crisis, 1923-1997