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Abstract
This Symposium integrates quantitative and qualitative information to assess the representation of women in academic geography in The Netherlands, Catalonia, Hungary and Singapore. It offers comparative commentary on the situation in the United States and additionally a focus on the experiences of a group of women geographers of colour in Canada, the US and the UK. Through this cross‐national approach, the significance of context in shaping the representation of women geographers becomes apparent, especially the importance of political economy and of shifting labour markets. The papers also make clear the intersections between the gender make‐up of the profession, the nature of the curriculum, and students' experiences. They document strategies employed to change women's representation.
Notes
Correspondence address: Janice Monk, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, Box 210025, University of Arizona, AZ 85716, USA. Email: [email protected]
These took place at the 2001 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers.
A ‘Focus’ section of The Canadian Geographer( Hall et al., Citation2002) takes up issues related to women and visible minorities in relation to climate, hiring, retention and other concerns; changing the culture of Canadian geography, especially in relation to race; comparative analysis of geography and other social sciences in Canadian universities; and integrating gender into mainstream teaching. Two of the papers in the set are by men.
The data in the annual Guide to Programs in Geography in the United States and Canada, published by the AAG, are most commonly used. While extensive, they are limited to those departments that choose to submit entries. Smaller departments and institutions where geography is taught within a multidisciplinary unit are under‐represented. Sex can only be inferred by interpreting given names, so that those with uncommon names (especially those with Asian names, a not insubstantial number) are difficult to classify. The Guide does give rank from which tenure status is inferred, though this is not automatically accurate. Those in temporary, annual or part‐time positions often cannot be separately identified. Neither is it clear how to count those listed as ‘adjuncts’ or ‘affiliated’ geographers whose appointments are primarily in other departments within the university. The annual Schwendeman's Directory of College Geography is more comprehensive and was a source for an unpublished study by Clionadh Raleigh.
Categories are currently listed as ‘not elsewhere classified’ (the majority), ‘American Indian’, ‘Asian’, ‘Black’, ‘Hispanic’, ‘Native Alaskan’ and ‘Pacific Islander’.
We have used the North American term ‘faculty’ throughout, recognizing that other terms are used in other contexts.
Raleigh (Citation2001), conducting a survey for the AAG, received responses from 72 per cent of departments in which the BA/BS is the highest degree awarded. Brinegar's (Citation2001) survey of doctoral‐granting departments yielded a response rate of 64 per cent, but supplementary data she drew from a survey reported in the 1998–1999 AAG Guide were based on a response rate of 39 per cent.
The Presidential session at the Association of American Geographers included Ruth Fincher, President of the Institute of Australian Geographers, Maria Dolors García Ramon, President of the Catalan Geographical Society, and Jenny Zorn, President of the California Geographical Society. Illness prevented the planned participation of Audrey Kobayashi, President of the Canadian Association of Geographers. The session was chaired by Association of American Geographers President, Janice Monk. Anne Buttimer of Ireland is current President of the International Geographical Union.
Timár & Jelenskyné note that their paper in this symposium resulted from international encouragement.
Lack of documentation does not imply that women are not practising geography or undertaking feminist work in these regions. Gender sessions and short courses, for example, have been offered in Argentina; important projects, such as the Atlas of Women and Men in India have been completed; Sri Lankan and African women scholars have dealt with development, health, political and environmental issues; Japanese geographers have recently translated English‐language articles for a teaching anthology ( Kamiya, Citation2002) and published an edited research collection ( Wakabayashi et al., Citation2002). This 236‐page volume in Japanese combines qualitative, quantitative and GIS analysis to explore such topics as the residential choices of single women, housing provision, consumption and life style choices, and housing problems of single parents.