A conceptual framework of positions on women in science, engineering, and technology (SET) was developed, showing a chronological progression of the main approaches to women's underrepresentation in SET during the past 20 years. Numerous initiatives have been advocated to address women's underrepresentation in SET in higher education. This article arose out of one such initiative, Winning Women, which was intended to help higher education in Scotland move toward good practice in this field. Two members of the project team describe their key findings and experiences. They illustrate how the underrepresentation of women in SET continues to be both progressive and persistent (using an SET parity index). The conceptual framework was conceived and developed from a metaanalysis of feminist theories of the gendered politics of science and technology.Women are underrepresented in science, engineering, and technology subjects in higher education. 1 Of the 31,205 undergraduates studying science, engineering, and technology (SET) in Scottish higher education institutions in 1995 -1996, women accounted for only 32%. This ranged from 14% in engineering and technology to 62% in biological sciences. These figures are roughly similar to those for the United Kingdom as a whole, and the underrepresentation of women in most SET subjects persists in many other European countries, the United States, Stationery Office [HMSO], 1993), and The rising tide (HMSO, 1994), and the subsequent establishment of the Development Unit on Women in SET within the Office of Science and Technology.In 1995, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) continued these efforts by launching a 2-year Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology initiative, at a cost of £300,000, to research and document examples of good practice which could be implemented in Scottish higher education to increase the participation of women in SET. The Winning Women research project, 2 on which this article is based, formed the first and third strands of this initiative. The second strand was composed of a number of related action projects in several Scottish JOURNAL

A conceptual framework of positions on women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) was developed, showing a chronological progression of the main approaches to women's underrepresentation in SET during the past 20 years. Numerous initiatives have been advocated to address women's underrepresentation in SET in higher education. This article arose out of one such initiative, Winning Women, which was intended to help higher education in Scotland move toward good practice in this field. Two members of the project team describe their key findings and experiences. They illustrate how the underrepresentation of women in SET continues to be both progressive and persistent (using a SET parity index). The conceptual framework was conceived and developed from a metaanalysis of feminist theories of the gendered politics of science and technology.

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