![Sample our Geography journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5937/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Geography.jpg"})
Abstract
Although there is a growing scholarship on the history of amateur meteorology, contemporary amateur meteorology has tended to remain a largely invisible social phenomenon. Moreover, questions of female involvement and gender relations therein have tended to be overlooked. This paper seeks to address this gap by drawing on interviews with members of one of the most important amateur meteorological networks in the UK—the Climatological Observers Link. The research identifies a predominantly male bias within amateur meteorology in the UK, offers insight into why and how this bias has emerged and explores the implications of this bias for gender politics in the home. It also considers the way in which, as a pursuit that is very much situated within the domestic sphere, amateur meteorology complicates traditional framings of the home as a female realm and contributes to a domestic masculinity.
Bien qu'il existe un faisceau croissant d'études sur l'histoire de la météorologie amateur, la météorologie amateur contemporaine a tendance à rester un phénomène social largement invisible. De plus des questions à son sein de la participation de la femme et les relations de genre sont toujours plutôt négligées. Cet article vise à adresser cette lacune en tirant des entretiens avec des membres d'un des réseaux météorologiques amateurs les plus importants dans le RU – l'Association des Observateurs Climatologiques (Climatological Observers Link). La recherche révèle que dans le RU la météorologie amateur est partiale en faveur des hommes (ndtr: il n'est pas mentionné dans VO si cette partialité réside dans l'appartenance de la dite association, la participation dans l'activité, ou de quoi il s'agisse), propose des aperçus sur la provenance de cette partialité, et examine les implications de cette partialité pour une politique de genre familiale. Elle prend en compte aussi la façon dans laquelle la météorologie amateur, comme activité résidant dans la sphère domestique, complique des représentations traditionnelles de l'environnement familiale comme domaine féminine aussi bien qu'il contribue à une masculinité domestique.
Aunque la cantidad de estudios en la historia de meteorología aficionada se está creciendo, en gran parte meteorología amateur contemporánea se ha permanecido como un fenómeno social invisible. Además, cuestiones de la participación de mujeres y las relaciones de género generalmente han sido pasado por alto. Este artículo intenta responder a este hueco utilizando entrevistas con participantes en uno de los redes meteorológicos amateurs más importantes en el Reino Unido – el Climatological Observers Link (COL). La investigación se identifica un prejuicio predominantemente masculino en meteorología aficionada en el Reino Unido, se ofrece perspicaz a porqué y cómo este prejuicio ha salido, y se explora las implicaciones de este prejuicio para la política de género en el hogar. También se considera la manera en que, como una búsqueda que está situada en la esfera doméstica, meteorología amateur se complica nociones tradicionales del hogar como un espacio femenino y se contribuye a una masculinidad doméstica.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the correspondents who kindly participated in this project. The work was supported by a British Academy Grant, SG48089.
Notes
1. The journal covers the period between February 1780 and May 1805 when the author passed away though the entries are more sporadic after 1802 (Anderson Citation2005).
2. Michele le Doeuff considered masculinist work that which ‘while claiming to be exhaustive, forgets about women's existence and concerns itself only with the position of men’, cited in Rose (1993: 4).
3. See Ellen (Citation1995) or Morantz-Sanchez (Citation2000) for women's involvement in the history of medicine.
4. These are distributed across the UK as follows: 79 in SE, 59 in the Midlands, 37 in the East 25 in NE, 15 in Wales, 28 in Scotland, 17 in Ireland, 21 in SW, 33 in NW, 4 in Channel Islands.
5. The Meteorological Office guidelines recommend that observations ‘are to be made each day of the year by a competent observer at the fixed time of 0900 Universal Time Co-ordinated (UTC)—9 a.m. clock time in the winter, 10 a.m. clock time during British Summer Time’ (CitationMeteorological Office, see http://web.mac.com/pixelpics/iWeb/MetWatch.info/Teaching%20Resources_files/MetoMeasurements.pdf)
6. For more information on the history of COL, please refer to Brugge (Citation2010).
7. A full membership list was not available at the time this research was undertaken.
8. Individual interviewees will not be identified; only the region in which they are located, e.g. NE for North East region; NW for North West, etc.
9. Though as the previous section demonstrated, it is the regular nature of data collection and analysis that is thought to attract men to amateur meteorology.
10. Bracknell was the site of the Meteorological Office until 2004 and this COL member was based there as a former employee.
11. Weather is a monthly magazine published by the Royal Meteorological Society and publishes articles, letters and features on all aspects of weather and meteorology. It is intended to appeal to a broad audience.
12. Thoresby quoted in Manley (1952: 300).
13. The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a US-based public–private partnership which seeks ‘to collect weather data contributed by citizens, to make these data available for weather services and to provide feedback to the data contributors so that they can check and improve their data quality’ (see http://www.wxqa.com) The COOP is ‘a nationwide weather and climate monitoring network for nearly 12,000 volunteers maintaining a 24/7 vigilance’. Members collect temperature and precipitation (including snowfall) data (Bristow et al. Citation2005: 135).