A More Inclusive Future for Technical Writers

By Devon James

In the beginning stages of technical communication, the focus was on being able to communicate within the sciences, and more specifically engineering. The Civil War and the World Wars that followed emphasized the importance of technical know-how especially with respect to weaponry and infrastructure.

This group of students was predominantly male, as was the area of study and studies in general. According to the National Women’s History Museum, women did not begin attending college in the same numbers as men until the 1980s. This gender gap in education subsequently resulted in a gender gap in technical and professional writing.

Additionally, what was first associated with technical and professional writing was only writing that pertained to male dominated fields. Many women remained in the home, or became factory workers during the industrial revolution and afterwards. Both of these occupations involve a dense amount of technical writing, but was not legitimized, especially not taught at a college level, because the forms of technical communication women engaged in, cook book reading and sewing machine maintenance for example, were considered to be for women’s activities and therefore not a practical area of study. For example, cookbooks are essentially how-to guides involving chemical experimentation and trial and error. Women using sewing machines had a technical understanding of how to operate the machine which involved understanding its mechanics.

However, women were not freely permitted to be involved in the sciences and were therefore excluded from technical writing or participating in the education system in general. This greatly influenced what was considered technical and what was considered professional, and had the effect of limiting, historically, contributions made by female technical and professional writers.

As the education system has become more diverse over the past half-century (since the 1960s) and women have gained greater access to more educational materials, practical training, as well as opportunities for career advancement and achievement, this field of writing has grown, and continues to grow, more inclusive. As a case in point, one of the leading figures in the field of technical and professional writing today is Lisa Meloncon, Associate Professor of Technical Communication at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Meloncon is a past president of the Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, a current member of the steering committee of Women in Technical Communication, and co-founder of the only stand-alone conference for rhetoricians of health and medicine.

Now, along with a more inclusive acknowledgement of contributors to technical communication, there is also a more inclusive definition of what constitutes technical communication, and what new inventions and technologies are represented in the writing itself. As technologies are growing ever more digital, not only is technical communication growing digital, but instructive information is necessary like never before.As digital technologies proliferate into the nooks and crannies of everyday life, technical communication, and its instruction at the university level, has become indispensable.

Sources:
”Feminist Theory and the Redefinition of Technical Communication” by Mary M. Lay  
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1050651991005004002

“Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication” by Katherine T. Durack
http://www.allenbrizee.com/Durack_Gender.pdf

The National Women’s History Museum Website
https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/education/introduction.html

Society for Technical Communication Website
https://www.stc.org/about-stc/