How should engineers respond to "gender"?

A research project on mainstreaming gender in water projects is being undertaken by WEDC, Loughborough University, UK with collaborators in South Africa and India. The main output of the project will be a Practical Guide for Engineers and Managers in the Water Sector, and a previous paper (Smout and Coates, 2000) described consultations held in India and South Africa with engineers during 2000. Throughout the research we have been exploring why engineers’ contributions to non-technical issues are limited and how engineers can improve the development impact of their work. and increase the involvement of groups of people normally excluded from engineering projects – especially women but also poor men and children. This paper considers the role of engineers in this context.