A Fine University for Women Engineers: a Scottish munitions factory in World War I

Abstract

In a tiny village in south-west Scotland, a model factory was established during World War I, not just to produce munitions 'for the duration', but with the expressed intention of continuing as 'a fine university for women engineers'. In an attempt to keep the enterprise going after the War, the factory was converted to the manufacture of motor cars. The Galloway - 'a car made by ladies for others of their sex' - was the result. This article considers the factory as a focal point for a network of material conditions and discursive claims within which the women of the Galloway Engineering Company sought to shape new technologies in their own terms, and so establish a permanent place for themselves in that masculine world.