The Electrifying Women project ran a series of creative writing workshops, run by creative writing specialist Hannah Stone. These were designed to get participants to think creatively about the history of women in engineering and invent some of the missing histories of their lives. Hannah Stone’s workshop outline is available to download here, alongside the creative writing anthology produced as a result of the workshops: From Fact to Fantasy. We also have blog posts on the subject here.
We would like to encourage others to run their own creative writing workshops with the theme of women in engineering, using these materials to help them if they wish.
To request a physical copy of the second volume, e-mail Hannahstone14 [at] hotmail.com.
Historical sources to use alongside the workshop
Alice Gordon Decorative Electricity (1891)
A guide to decorating the Victorian home with electric lighting. Alice Gordon was the wife of a Victorian engineer and the final chapter of the book details her experiences of this and her involvement in her husband’s work.
Read more about Claudia Parsons – engineer, writer and traveller – on her wikipedia page.
Other reading
Project partner Nina Baker has written two very interesting blogs about fictional representations of women engineers, which may also provide some inspiration. You can read them here: Once upon a time there was an engineer… Part 1 and Part 2.