Women in Geography - History, Events, and What We Do

SWIG members: Please contact us with articles and citations we can add to this page, historical or current!

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"Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Geographic Perspectives on Women."  Eds. Gary Gaile and Cort Willmot with Ann M. Oberhauser, Donna Rubinoff, Karen De Bres, Susan Mains, and Cindy Pope. Online version    static version

"The Women Were Always Welcome at Clark." Janice Monk. http://www.clarku.edu/departments/geography/monk%20article.pdf

"Women, Gender, and the Histories of American Geography." Annals of the AAG, 94(1) March 2004,1-22. See abstract

"Women's Worlds at the American Geographical Society." Geographical Review, 93 (2), April 2003, 237-257.

"Equity for Women in Geography." Jennifer Hall, Pamela Moss, Brenda L. Murphy. The Canadian Geographer. Vol 46, Iss 3. 2002. pp. 235-. Canadian Association of Geographers.

"Emplacing Current Trends in Feminist Historical Geography." Gender, Place and Culture 6:4 (Dec 1999), 311-330.

"Female Representation in the Discipline of Geography." Sarah J. Brinegar. Journal of Geography in Higher Education Volume 25, Number 3 / November 1, 2001. pp. 311-320. This report updates earlier findings of women's progress in the discipline of geography from a feminist perspective.

"Feminism and the Academy: The Experiences of Women Graduate Students in Geography." Brenda L. Murphy and Jennifer Hall. The Great Lakes Geographer, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002. Online version   pdf version

"The representation of women in academic Geography: contexts, climate and curricula." Janice Monk, Joos Droogleever Fortuijn, Clionadh Raleigh. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. Volume 28, Number 1 / March 2004. p. 83-90. See abstract.

"Unintentional transgressions and other reflections on the job search process." Domosh, M., 2000.The Professional Geographer, 52(4): 703-708.

"'And a charming wife': Gender, marriage, and manhood in the job search process." Seager, J., 2000. The Professional Geographer, 52(4): 709-721.

"Faculty reappointment, tenure, and promotion: Barriers for women." Winkler, J.A., 2000. The Professional Geographer, 52(4): 737-750.

"Networking." Hanson, Susan. 2000. The Professional Geographer, 52(4): 751-758.

"Is GIS for Women? Reflections on the critical discourse in the 1990s." Kwan, M.-P., 2002. Gender, Place and Culture, 9(3):271-279.

"Feminist visualization: Re-envisioning GIS as a method in feminist geographic research." Kwan, M.-P. AAG Annals.

"Men were the only models I had." Heilbrun, C. G., 2001. Chronicle of Higher Education, October 12, B7-B12.

Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World. Polk, M. and Tiegreen, M., 2001. NY: Clarkson Potter ISBN 0609604805

The Door in the Dream: Conversations With Eminent Women in Science. Wasserman, E., 2000. NY: Joseph Henry Press, ISBN 0309065682.

Women in Geography Study group listserv archive (web)

Ellen Churchill Semple (web)

Women's History in Wisconsin (web)

A short history of the Women's Network, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (pdf)

Committee on the Status of Women in Geography, Southeast Division of the AAG, Annual Meeting Report, Nov 26, 2003 (pdf)

What is Geography?

Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment. There are two main branches of geography: human geography and physical geography.

Human geography is concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence - how people and their activity are distributed in space, how they use and perceive space, and how they create and sustain the places that make up the earth's surface. Human geographers work in the fields of urban and regional planning, transportation, marketing, real estate, tourism, and international business.

Physical geographers study patterns of climates, land forms, vegetation, soils, and water. They forecast the weather, manage land and water resources, and analyze and plan for forests, rangelands, and wetlands. Many human and physical geographers have skills in cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Geographers also study the linkages between human activity and natural systems. Geographers were, in fact, among the first scientists to sound the alarm that human-induced changes to the environment were beginning to threaten the balance of life itself. They are active in the study of global warming, desertification, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, groundwater pollution, and flooding.

-- from the AAG website