On the Status of Women in Geography

Abstract

Following the first AAG departmental survey (Spring, 1981), the AAG Committee on the Status of Women undertook a subsequent study in Winter and Spring Quarters, 1982; 60 departments participated. A brief questionnaire was sent to the Chairpersons asking for basic information on the characteristics of women in the discipline.Even the simple questions required a substantial degree of effort and perseverance and temporal data were difficult to obtain for most departments. Attempts to determine why students failed to complete their degrees, or why they chose places to work, and their opinions on the existence of harassment and discrimination encountered difficulty in obtaining responses. Nevertheless, 57 of the 60 departments canvassed responded with varying degrees of completeness. The purpose here is to report the results and to highlight the need to collect and interpret more information about this sub-group of geographers. We do not intend to discuss women's issues in depth; other papers (e.g., by Hanson and Monk, and others in the Special Feature on Women in the February 1982 PC) do this well.

The Status of Women in Geography: Things Change, Things Remain the Same

“…A survey of undergraduate geography students who later went on to become professional geographers showed no obvious gender differences that would favor one sex over the other (Jumper and Harrison 1986, Table 1). Golledge and Halperin (1983) determined that women students were conscientious, had a low dropout rate, and tended to finish programs faster than males. Those who did drop from a program most frequently cited alternate job opportunities as the reason.…”

“…Ten percent of the departments canvassed by Golledge and Halperin (1983) reported sexual harassment complaints in 1980-81. The authors concluded that harassment was not a problem.…”

Women Geographers in Business and Government: A Survey

“…For women who are entering the geographic profession today the advice from the respondents can be summarized as follows: (1) learn technical skills and marketable skills including computer techniques and quantitative methods, (2) be able to adapt your training and skill to the job market and look into different types of jobs, (3) have a good solid geography background, (4) be able to combine geography with other fields (engineering and computer science were frequently mentioned), (5) try t o gain experience and develop contacts while still in school, (6) be competent, professional, hardworking, determined to achieve, and eager to learn. There were some negative answers.…”

Gender equality and progress of gender studies in Japanese geography: a critical overview

“…II Gender equality among Japanese geographers Gender equality has been examined by geographers since the 1970s, mainly addressing the issues of women' underrepresentation and their lower level of career achievement in North America and in Europe (Zelinsky, 1973;1975;Berman, 1974;Rubin, 1979;McDowell, 1979;Momsen, 1980;Golledge and William, 1983;Garcia-Ramon et a., 1988;Mackenzie, 1989;McDowell and Peake, 1990;Lee, 1990;Falconer Al-Hindi, 2000;Luzzadder-Beach and Macfarlane, 2000;Winkler, 2000;Hall et a., 2002;Monk, 2004). As no studies seem to have been published on the Japanese situation,1 this paper will attempt to examine the following aspects of gender equality among geographers in Japan: (1) gender balance in academic geographical societies; (2) percentages of women/men who have written papers in the area; (3) percentages ofwomen/ men who served as referees for academic journals; (4) rate ofwomen/men who administer geographical societies; (5) gender distribution of geographers who have teaching positions in colleges/universities.…”