Who Counts? Gender, Gatekeeping, and Quantitative Human Geography

Abstract

How academic disciplines are represented and reproduced is a charged issue. In geography in particular, the challenge is not only who counts, especially with regard to gender and other factors, but also how the boundaries of the discipline are drawn and which subfields are acknowledged. This article contributes to both aspects of the discussion by extending recent research on gender, internationalization, and academic gatekeeping to additional subfields of human geography. In particular, we focus on the demographic structure and international diversity of the editorial teams of flagship quantitative geography journals. We find that women are underrepresented in our sample, with shares ranging from 23.1 to 43.5 percent—numbers unfortunately comparable to many other geography journals. We also find that career stage is an important factor and that our sample is more international and less Anglophone than the disciplinary norm. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of attending to issues of inclusive gatekeeping in geography and elsewhere.

学科的表达和再现是一个有争议的问题。特别是在地理学, 挑战不仅是谁重要（尤其是关于性别和其它因素）, 还有如何界定领域的范畴和分支。本文针对这两个挑战做出贡献：将近期关于性别、国际化和学术“把关“的研究, 扩展到人文地理的其它分支。我们特别专注了主要定量地理期刊的编委会的人口结构和国际多样性。通过采样发现, 同其它地理期刊相比, 这些定量期刊忽视了女性（女性只占23.1%-43.5%）。我们还发现, 职业阶段是一个重要因素；同学科的标准相比, 我们的采样更加国际化、母语为英语的更少。在地理学和其它领域, 文章的结论重点强调了关注包容性学术把关的重要性。

El modo como se representan y reproducen las disciplinas académicas es un asunto cargado. En la geografía, en particular, el reto es no solamente quién cuenta, especialmente en consideración al género y otros factores, sino también cómo se trazan los límites de la disciplina y cuáles subcampos se reconocen. Este artículo contribuye en ambos aspectos de la discusión extendiendo la investigación reciente sobre género, internacionalización y salvaguarda académica hacia los subcampos adicionales de la geografía humana. En particular, nos enfocamos sobre la estructura demográfica y la diversidad internacional de los equipos editoriales de las revistas emblemáticas de la geografía cuantitativa. Hallamos que las mujeres están mal representadas en nuestra muestra, con participaciones que van del 23.1 al 43.5 por ciento––números infortunadamente comparables con lo que ocurre en otras muchas revistas geográficas. Encontramos también que la etapa de la carrera es un factor importante y que nuestra muestra es más internacional y menos anglófona que la norma disciplinaria. Concluimos dando énfasis a la importancia de prestar atención a cuestiones de salvaguarda incluyente en geografía y en otros campos.

Key Words:

• academia
• gender
• geography
• publication
• quantitative methods

关键词：:

• 学术界
• 性别
• 地理学
• 论著
• 定量方法。

Palabras clave::

• academia
• género
• geografía
• métodos cuantitativos
• publicación

Notes

1 Although we study gender as a binary here, it is important to recognize that the term is richer and includes nonbinary forms. Our conclusions would likely be even bleaker were we able to take this richer conception of gender into account.

2 The journals included in their sample are Gender Place and Culture, The Geographical Journal, Environment and Planning C, Progress in Human Geography, Environment and Planning D, The Professional Geographer, Geographical Review, Cultural Geographies, Annals of the AAG, Antipode, Transactions of the IBG, Urban Geography, Social & Cultural Geography, Economic Geography, Geoforum, Environment and Planning A, European Urban and Regional Studies, Political Geography, Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Historical Geography, Applied Geography, and Area.

3 In 2019, the Geographic Information Science & Systems Specialty Group of the AAG had more than 1,500 members, second only to Urban Geography. The Spatial Analysis and Modeling (1,025), Transportation (403), and Population (306) groups also had long-standing and healthy memberships. These are not insubstantial numbers, considering an overall AAG membership of 11,795 in 2018 (AAG 2019).

4 An important omission from much of the research on this subject is the differentiation between country of residence and country of origin and those living outside their countries of birth. Although we are unable to assess this, theory and anecdotal evidence would suggest that the hegemony of Anglophone institutions reflects not only language but also universities’ abilities to attract global talent—a proposition that is also problematic and worthy of further study.

5 Country of origin, race, class, and so on are all important dimensions of this discussion but are not tractable with our methodological approach, which relies on published information to determine gender, current institution, and years since PhD. Other categories (and even gender) require the opportunity for individual self-identification.

6 Our data set is available here https://github.com/rsfrankl/geog-gender.

7 In Schurr, Müller, and Imhof (2020), Progress in Human Geography, The Professional Geographer, Environment and Planning C, and Environment and Planning D, among others, all have higher shares than average of women on their editorial boards.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel S. Franklin

RACHEL S. FRANKLIN is Professor of Geographical Analysis in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include population decline and shrinking cities, spatial inequality, and demographic change.

Victoria Houlden

VICTORIA HOULDEN is Research Associate in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include greenspace accessibility and mental well-being, geospatial methods, and social inequality.

Caitlin Robinson

CAITLIN ROBINSON is Lecturer in Urban Analytics in the Department of Geography and Planning and the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include energy poverty, spatial inequality, and spatial analysis.

Daniel Arribas-Bel

DANIEL ARRIBAS-BEL is Senior Lecturer in Geographic Data Science in the Department of Geography and Planning and the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include cities, computers, and data.

Elizabeth C. Delmelle

ELIZABETH C. DELMELLE is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC 28223. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include neighborhood dynamics, urban transportation, and spatial analysis and modeling.

Urška Demšar

URŠKA DEMŠAR is Senior Lecturer in Geoinformatics in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9AJ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include movement analysis and spatiotemporal visual analytics.

Harvey J. Miller

HARVEY J. MILLER is Professor in the Department of Geography and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include GIScience, mobility science, and sustainable transportation.

David O’Sullivan

DAVID O’SULLIVAN is Professor of Geography and Geospatial Science in the School of Geography, Environmental and Earth Science at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand 6012. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include computational methods, the complexity sciences, and implications of geospatial technologies.