288 Gendering technical professions and secondary school science education in Hungary Valeria Szekeres, PhD. Óbuda University, 1084 Budapest, Tavaszmező u. 17, szekeres.valeria@kgk.uni- obuda.hu Abstract: Formal schooling is a major agent in reinforcing cultural expectations for males and females. Socialization in schools occurs through various channels such as classroom interactions and subject choices. Girls may feel obliged to fit into a pre-determined stereotypical model of femininity. The paper deals with gendering technology and secondary school science education. The research was based on focus groups with female students and interviews with teachers about familiarity and feelings concerning tech fields and the factors behind. Keywords: gender beliefs, STEM, secondary school, higher education 1. Introduction A fundamental way to express gender is through technology. Technical skills or lack of them basically shape masculinities and femininities. In Western societies men are regarded as possessing a kind of natural affinity with machines and tech- nology to such a great extent that technology is coded male. On the other hand women are supposed to dislike it, which is originated in their totally different engagement in the past. Men are viewed as being enthusiastically involved in making and tinkering with machines. Women also use machines, but are consid- ered to simply be just beneficiaries of inventions, passive in relation with ma- chines. Women are characterized by using machine without any deep understand- ing or affection (Bray, 2007). Meanwhile in modern societies gender is having the power to enact what is recognized as technology: washing machine is not a tech- nology when used for washing clothes (by a woman), but becomes technology when it is repaired (by a man). As a consequence gender is also closely related to the determination whether skills can be categorized as negligible or significant. Gendered attitudes and beliefs are featured in throughout of social institutions. From the viewpoint of striving for a deeper democracy that can be achieved