Gender representation in academic geography in Catalonia (Spain): towards a masculinization of the discipline?

Abstract

In the mid‐1980s Spanish geography seemed to be a success story in relation to gender and geography (Garcia‐Ramon et al., 1988). But in recent years this positive aspect has been less marked, at least in Catalan geography. The total percentage of women staff has remained quite steady but the male:female ratio has significantly increased among younger age groups. Gender approaches to teaching and research in geography are still available in only a minority of departments in Spain. Contrary to the growing number of women geography staff in the English‐speaking world, the image of geography in Spain today is more masculine than before, probably due to the fact that geography has moved from a more traditional to a more technical focus linked to the growth of professional practice outside the university.

Keywords:

• Professional geography
• academic geography
• gender
• Catalonia
• Spain

Notes

Correspondence address: Maria Dolors Garcia‐Ramon, Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain. Email: mariadolors. [email protected]

The kind of data that interested us—now and then—are not published in a disaggregated way for each university department and had to be based on a questionnaire sent to each department of geography. The difficulties in obtaining precise data from all Spanish geography departments have led us to restrict the survey to the Catalan universities, which we consider fairly representative of general trends in Spain. This is suggested by partial data from a small sample to which reference will made below. Nevertheless, in our present analysis of Catalonia we will use some additional published data to complement the picture for the totality of the disciplines at Catalan universities.

A partial survey that we have carried out in six Spanish geography departments outside Catalonia (Navarra, Valencia, Las Palmas, Madrid Autonoma, Alicante and Cantabria) for the year 2002 suggests a similar situation in Spain in general: 41.3 per cent of women in these departments are concentrated in the age group 46 to 60; 47.6 per cent in the age group 31 to 45, and only 9.5 per cent in the age group below 30 years. In the case of men the situation is similar but the proportion of those in the youngest age group is slightly higher (11.6). But it should be noted that women amount to only 30 per cent of the staff in the same youngest age group.

There are 20 academic geographical journals in Spain currently published but not all have appeared on a regular basis until recently. Nevertheless, during this period only six or 7 seven journals were well known and established, among which three were Catalan journals, Revista de Geografia, Documents d'Analisi Geogràfica and Geocrítica.

Ascribing each article to one specific thematic field inevitably leads to simplifications and data must be interpreted cautiously. For an explanation of the methodology see Garcia‐Ramon & Caballe (1998).

Until recently population geography in Spain has not been particularly demanding as far as sophistication in statistical techniques is concerned. At the same time this type of research did not require much mobility.

In the case of the University of Barcelona, 80 per cent of the PhD theses were supervised by a male professor.

However, the prospects for geography as a professional field appear to be vulnerable because of an excessive dependence on the public sector (regional and local administrations), where about 73 per cent of the professional geographers in Catalonia are employed, and the trend in the rest of Spain is very similar (Tarroja, 2000).

As far as we are aware, the only course specifically on gender and geography at the undergraduate level in Spain was Gender and Geography, which was established in the curricula of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1991 and, recently, at the University of Girona as well. At the graduate level—where there is much more flexibility—some courses have been regularly or irregularly taught in about five or six universities (two of them in Catalonia) and, often, the courses are organized within a multidisciplinary programme on gender at the university.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Dolors Garcia‐Ramon *

Correspondence address: Maria Dolors Garcia‐Ramon, Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain. Email: mariadolors. [email protected]