1989-1991: International Task
Force on Women in Cartography
Major activities in brief
International survey
and report on the status of women in
cartography.
Conferences:
ICA Conference, Budapest,
Hungary, 1989. 
19th FIG (International Federation
of Surveyors) Conference in Helsinki, Finland, 1990
ICA Congress, Bournemouth,
United Kingdom, 1991.
The Task Force was created by ICA President D.R.F.
Taylor, chaired by Dr. Eva Siekierska (Canada), and
co-chaired by Ms. Edel Lundemo (Norway). It had an international
membership.
International
Survey on the Participation of Women in the ICA
The Task Force's major activity was a survey on the
status of women in cartography. The purposes of the
survey were to:
- Measure the status of women in cartography;
- Provide an overview of the involvement of women
in the ICA; and
- Determine what kinds of barriers have contributed
to the disproportionately low participation of
women in the ICA and in cartographic activities
internationally, including the identification of
professional, educational, personal and societal
barriers to women’s participation, and factors
associated with the ICA itself, which might
affect women’s participation in the
organization.
- Devise measures to overcome these barriers.
The questionnaire was designed to provide educational
and professional profiles of the women cartographers
taking part in the survey. It was sent both to women who
are or have been involved in the ICA, as well as those
who have never been involved.
The survey was sent to approximately 1500 women
cartographers in most of the 60 member countries of the
International Cartographic Association. It may be the
largest international survey of women cartographers ever
undertaken. An additional open-ended survey was designed
to gather the opinions of men who occupied prominent
posts in the ICA. This questionnaire was sent to past and
present presidents of the ICA and chairs of the ICA
commissions.
Results from the survey were presented in the report, "The Participation of
Women in the International Cartographic Association
(ICA): Report and Recommendations." This report
proposes strategies and makes recommendations for change,
proposes a number of possible incentives to increase
participation, and includes comments solicited from
individuals who have been involved in recent years as
Executive Committee or Commission members. The report was
tabled at the ICA International
Congress in Bournemouth, England (Sept-Oct. 1991)
(see below).
Colleagues and scholars in the related fields of
remote sensing, geodesy and surveying expressed interest
in the project. Identification of barriers to women’s
participation in the ICA and in the profession generally
has implications beyond the boundaries of cartography.
The survey results have been of great interest to other
international and national associations, including the
United Nations, particularly those whose participation of
women has been disproportionately low and which are now
seeking more balanced participation by both genders in
their activities. Results also are of value to all
concerned with the participation of women in
non-traditional occupations, whether in business,
academia or government
Funding sources for the project are acknowledged in the
Report.
Conference Participation
The first informal meetings of the
Task Force were at the ICA 14th World
Cartographic Conference, in Budapest, Hungary, 1989.
Co-chair Edel Lundemo spoke at 19th FIG (International Federation of
Surveyors) Conference in Helsinki, Finland (June 1990),
on the Norwegian experience in establishing equal rights
and opportunities for women, particularly in the Mapping
Authority, and highlighted the ICA Task Force's
activities on gender issues.
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1991-1995: Working Group
on Gender and Cartography
Major activities in brief
Creation of the Directory
of Women in Cartography, Surveying and GIS
At ICA Congresses and
Conferences:
Workshops at the 16th
Conference of the ICA in Cologne / Koln, Germany,
1993.
Training seminars at the ICA
Seminar in Istanbul, Turkey, 1994.
With other
organizations:
Presentation to IGU Symposium on
Women and Work, Rutgers University, New York,
1992.
Training seminars at the Mexican
National Conference on GIS, Mexico City, Mexico,
1992.
International
recognition of the role of the Working
Group was made through two invitations received from
the United Nations and the ICA to present papers at:
The 5th UN Regional Cartographic
Conference for the Americas, New York City, New
York, 1993.
The 13th UN Regional Cartographic
Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Beijing,
China, 1994
The report of the Task Force on Women in
Cartography, "The
Participation of Women in the International Cartographic
Association (ICA): Report and Recommendations",
was submitted to the president of the ICA and
subsequently to the ICA Executive Committee. The report
was favourably received. One of the recommendations of
the Task Force was the establishment of a Working Group
on Gender and Cartography. The 9th General
Assembly of the ICA (Bournemouth,
England, 1991) voted unanimously to establish a new
Working Group on Gender in Cartography as a continuation
of work initiated by the Task Force on Women in
Cartography.
Another recommendation included in the
report that was acted upon immediately was the change to
the ICA statutes, to include the goal of "promoting
equality of opportunity within the ICA."
The report was distributed to all those
who responded to the survey and the interview-by-mail, as
well as to those organizations who financially supported
the Task Force activities. The funding for printing and
distributing the report was provided by Norway and
Sweden.
The change of name of the Working Group
brought some concern, as the term "gender" does
not translate easily into some national languages.
However, the members of the Task Force were of the strong
opinion that this term reflects more closely the
important aspect of the modus operandi of the proposed
Working Group, as it emphasize the interaction of men and
women and does not suggest the environment of
exclusiveness "for women only".
The chair and co-chair remained unchanged
from the Task Force. Membership
was increased by representatives from:
- Bahrain (Ms Seema Ahmadi);
- Nigeria (Ms Cecilia Onyeka);
- Brazil (Regina Vasconcellos); and
- South Africa (Prof E C Liebenberg).
The Working Group's liaison to the
Executive Board was Professor Michael Wood.
The general goal of the Working Group
was:
- To promote the equality of opportunity in all
organizational units and at all levels of
responsibility within ICA and its member national
organizations
Specifically:
- To study the present status of women and other
under-represented groups, such as younger
cartographers or cartographers from developing
countries.
- To design a mechanism for achievement of more
balanced contributions of the genders, age groups
or geographical regions.
- To study the changes caused by technological
change and societal developments in the
cartographic profession and the influence of
female-associated values.
- To identify and analyze the perceptual
differences in the creation and use of maps and
other cartographic products.
The Working Group members recognized the
accomplishment of Dr. Barbara Petchenik (1939-1992), the
first woman ICA vice-president.
Directory of Women in
Cartography, Surveying and GIS
To facilitate professional
networking, the Directory
of Women in Cartography, Surveying and GIS
was created as a by-product of the survey conducted
by the Task Force on Women in Cartography.
It contains information from all
survey participants who returned the questionnaire
and who wished to be included in the directory. The
directory has over 350 entries, with addresses from
36 countries.
The purpose of the directory is to
facilitate professional and social contact and
support of women in cartography and related
professions around the world. The organizing
committees of the Cologne, Barcelona and Stockholm
ICA Conferences used the directory.
The Directory was updated in 1997,
and is now in its 3rd edition.
Activities at
ICA Congresses and Conferences
16th
Conference of the ICA, Cologne/Koln, Germany, 1993
Two seminars on "Gender and Cartography:
Experiences from Other Disciplines" were held by
Donna Williams (Natural Resources Canada). Two open sessions were
held by the Working Group, generating useful
discussions on the roles of the Working Group.
Particularly interesting were the comments of women
attending an ICA meeting for the first time, some of
whom had been encouraged to attend by reading "The Participation of
Women in the International Cartographic Association
(ICA): Report and Recommendations" (1991).
ICA
International Cartographic Seminar, Istanbul, Turkey,
April, 1994
The Working Group contributed to a seminar on
"Teaching Conventional to Digital Map Production
Lines and New Trends in Cartography" organized
in cooperation with the ICA Standing Commissions on
Education and Training and Map Production Technology,
at the Istanbul Technical University. The local
organizer of the seminar was Prof. Necla Ulugtekin, a
member of the Working Group. The Working Group's
contribution to the seminar was a demonstration of
multimedia electronic mapping and a lecture on the
application of expert systems to cartography and a
lecture on geographical information systems. The
Working Group's annual meeting was held following
this seminar.
Activities
with other organizations
IGU
Congress, New Brunswick and Washington, USA, August
1992.
A representative of the Working Group attended a
symposium on "Women’s paid and unpaid work in
a changing global economy", at the IGU Gender
and Geography Study Group’s session at Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, USA. The results of the
ICA Task Force on Women in Cartography survey results
were presented in a plenary session and awakened
considerable interest among participants. The IGU
Group became the IGU Gender and Geography Commission
at the IGU Congress in Washington, held following the
symposium.
Prof. Patricia Gilmartin ( )(University of South
Carolina, USA) was nominated as liaison between the
Working Group and the IGU Commission on Gender and
Geography in 1994.
First Mexican
National Conference on GIS, Mexico City, Mexico,
October 1992.
The Working Group held two seminars at this
Conference. The first, an "Introduction to GIS:
Concepts and Terminology", was oriented to
novice users, and used examples of GIS implementation
in several countries. Members of the Working Group
from Canada, China, Norway, Mexico, and the United
States gave presentations. The second seminar, on
"Applications of Expert Systems to Cartography
and GIS", was oriented towards more advanced GIS
users. Both workshops had about 40 participants. Dr.
Carmen Reyes, a member of the Working Group, was an
organizer of this conference.
U.N.
Regional Cartographic Conferences
5th
UN Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York
City, New York, USA, 1992
A paper entitled "The Role of Women in Surveying
and Mapping" (E / CONF.86.1/BP.2) prepared by
Carol Beaver (co-chair of the Working Group) was
given by ICA President Fraser Taylor. The paper gave
a thorough analysis of the results obtained in the
1991 survey and was very well received.
13th
UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the
Pacific, Beijing, China, May 1994
Dr. Siekierska prepared a paper on the Activities of
the Working Group. The paper was presented during the
Human resources Development Session of the Conference
by Carol Beaver (Executive Secretary of the Working
Group), who was attending the Conference as one of
the U.S. advisors. The paper included a
recommendation that the under-representation of women
and minority groups be recognized wherever it may
exist in the cartographic community and be rectified
at local, national and international levels.
Professor Kanakubo, a representative of the ICA,
presented this recommendation as a resolution. The
resolution, after modification, was passed as
Resolution 7 – Women in Cartography. It states:
"The Conference,
acknowledging the important role women play in
surveying, mapping and charting, and noting the
under-representation of women at professional,
educational conference and networking activities,
recommends that the national survey, mapping and
charting organizations create increased
opportunities for women for career
advancement."
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1995-1999: Commission on
Gender and Cartography
Major activities in brief
Creation of a World Wide Web
site, 1997
At ICA Congresses and
Conferences
Paper presented at the 17th
International Cartographic Conference and 10th
General Assembly of the ICA, Barcelona, Spain,
1995.
Paper presented to the 18th
ICA/ACI International Cartographic Conference,
Stockholm, Sweden, 1997.
The 1997 Annual Meeting
was held in Stockholm at the ICA Conference.
The 1998 Annual Meeting was held Sunday May 31, 1998,
in Wroclaw, Poland, before the seminar on Special
Needs Mapping (see below).
1999 ICA/ACI 19th
International Cartographic Conference and 11th
General Assembly of the ICA, Ottawa, Canada,
August 1999.
With other
organizations
Workshop on "Electronic
Atlases and Cartographic Multimedia Products",
University of Sao Paolo, Brazil,
1996.
Invited paper presented to the Swedish
Cartographic Technical Association Conference,
Stockholm, Sweden, 1997.
Invited paper presented to the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa, Addis Abeba, Ethiopa, 1997.
Seminar on Spatial Data Visualization,
organized by the ICA
Commission on Visualization, Warsaw, Poland, May
21-24, 1998, attended by Gender Commission members
Joint Seminar on "Maps for
Special Users", Wroclaw, Poland, June 1998 .
Seminar of the ICA
National and Regional Atlases Commission,
Reykjavik, Iceland, August, 1998.
InterCarto 5, Yakutsk, Russia,
June 1999.
Joint Seminar on
"Discovering Basic Map Concepts",
Montreal, Canada, August 1999.
Note on PAIGH project
The Working Group became a Commission at 17th
International Cartographic Conference and 10th General
Assembly of the ICA, Barcelona, Spain, 1995. The Members of the Commission, and
its mandate, can be found on
this web site. In general, the Commission is concerned
with social and organizational change related to all
underrepresented groups, such as younger cartographers
and cartographers from developing countries. The main
focus of work is to encourage women to be more active in
the ICA.
A number of working groups were to be founded:
- ICA Youth Working Group (Robert Kuunders,
Netherlands)
- Working Group on Scientific Aspects of Gender and
Cartography (Nikolas Huffman, United States)
- Working Group of Spanish-speaking Cartographers
(Regina Vasconcellos, Brazil)
- Working Group for Cartographic Technicians
(Christina Hoegstedt, Sweden)
The World Wide Web site went
on-line in August of 1997. The goals for the site include
facilitating networking and sharing information between
the Commission and other institutions with similar goals.
Please let us know how we can make the site more useful
for your particular needs.
Activities at ICA
Congresses and Conferences
17th International
Cartographic Conference and 10th General Assembly of
the ICA, Barcelona, Spain, 1995.
The Barcelona conference saw two women
vice-presidents on the ICA executive: Judy Olson
(United States) and Regina Vasconcellos (Brazil). The
new liaison between the commission and the ICA
executive is Bengt Rystedt () of Sweden.
The highlight of this conference for the
Commission was the very first session ever on Women
in Cartography on an ICA programme. In this session,
papers were presented by:
- Alberta Auringer Wood (Memorial University,
Canada), who gave a tribute to the late
Barbara Bartz Petchenik (1939-1992), the
first woman ICA vice-president, describing
her scientific achievements and the impact of
her work on other cartographers.
- Nikolas Huffman (Pennsylvania State
University, United States), who presented a
paper entitled "Silence and secrecy in
the history of cartography: J.B. Harley,
science and gender".
- Ángela Blanco Garcia (Autonomous University
of Madrid, Spain), who delivered a paper on
"Spanish Women Geographers and
Cartography in the 19th
Century", and analyzed the participation
of women in the two disciplines, emphasizing
that the education of women was a very
important factor.
- Eva Siekierska (Canada), on behalf of the
Gender and Cartography Working Group,
presented a paper "From Task Force on
Women in Cartography to Gender and
Cartography Working Group – what we
learned". The paper summarized the major
accomplishments of the Working Group and Task
Force and described the evolution of the
Working Group's thinking.
The session was well-attended. One notable
participant was Prof. Maria Dolores Garcia Gamun
(Autonomous University of Barcelona), who serves on
the Executive Committee of the IGU Commission on
Gender and Cartography.
1997 ICA Conference,
Stockholm, Sweden
A paper entitled "United Nations Policies
on Gender within the Framework of the United Nations
regional Cartographic Conferences" was
presented in the main paper session of the 1997 ICA
Conference. This paper focused on the role the UN
plays in developing policies and strategies for the
advancement of women.
An invited paper entitled "Women and World
Cartography" was given at the Swedish
Technical Cartographic Association meeting, running
parallel to the ICA 97 Conference. The paper
summarized the results of the International Survey of
Women in the ICA, reviewed barriers to more active
participation of women in the ICA, and suggested
possible incentives to overcome these barriers. It
also provided a summary of the activities of the ICA
Working Group and Commission on Gender and
Cartography. The paper gave an overview of current
United Nations policies on women, including the UN's
Platform for Action on Gender, tabled at the Beijing
UN Conference on Women, 1996.
1997 Annual Meeting of
the Commission on Gender and Cartography , held
at the 1997 ICA Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
Individual countries presented reports on their
activities. About 15 countries were represented at
this meeting.
Prof. Kirsi Virrantaus (Finland) became chair of
the Gender and Surveying Working Group of the
Federation International de Geometre (FIG).
A formal paper entitled "What is Gender and
Cartography" was presented by Eliane Alves da
Silva of the Brazilian Institute of Cartography and
Statistics (IBGE). The paper summarized a personal
account of the author relating to gender issues
within the broader context of Human Geography, and
linked to the work of the ICA Commission.
Margareta Elg, editor of the National Atlas of
Sweden, presented a synopsis of a special volume of
the Gender Atlas, presently under consideration for
publication.
1999 ICA/ACI 19th
International Cartographic Conference and 11th
General Assembly of the ICA, Ottawa, Canada, August
1999.
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1999-2003: Commission on Gender and Cartography
ICA Commission on Gender and Cartography Report
of the period 1999-2003
Major activities in brief
To serve as a resource on issues related to Gender and Cartography:
At ICA Congresses and Conferences
- Paper presented at the ICA/ACI 19th International Cartographic Conference and 11th
General Assembly of the ICA, Ottawa, Canada, August 1999.
- Paper presented at the International Cartographic Congress, Beijing, PR of China,
August 6-10, 2001 (see: ICA News, No. 37,
December 2001, p. 15) (pdf).
Co-operation with the other commissions in the frame of ICA:
- Commission on Children and Cartography: "round table", Budapest 2001
(report: ICA News, No. 35, December 2000, p. 10) (pdf)
and Polish Cartographic Review, V. 32, No. 4, 2000.
- Commission on Maps and Graphics for Blind and Visually-Impaired People: publishing report of the new
sonic method of coding contour lines and current information in INTACT (Simon Ungar).
Published papers:
- Sonic Method as Educational Aid for Blind Students, Proc. Of the ICC 1999, Ottawa, pp. 459-464,
- Monograph: Sonic modelling in education of the blind (in Polish and English), Agricultural University of
Wrocław, Poland, pp. 100,
- New way in cartography for the blind: sonic coding of contour lines, Kartograficke listy 8, Bratislava,
Slovakia,
- Patent No. 178328 for "Method of sonic localisation of points",
- Sonic digitizer - a new didactics aid [in:] "Spatial orientation in emancipate of the blind", Pedag.
Academy, Warsaw, Poland, 2001, pp. 44-57.
- Commission on Theoretical Cartography: participation of four commission' members in the Seminar
"The Selected Problems of Theoretical Cartography 2002" in Gdańsk, Poland, see ICA News No. 39, 2002, p. 11.
The opinion for the future activity and cross-commission project. Presentation results of questionnaire sent by
ICA Vice-president T.Morita to the chairs of the commissions for definitions a map (and cartography).
- Publishing an article: "An approach to the map classification problem", Geod. And Cart. LI, 4, Warsaw, 2002.
Co-operation with the other organizations
- The co-operation between the International Association of Geodesy (IAG): publication of an article presenting
activity and role of Gender and Cartography Commission in WG Newsletter of FIG and several scientific and personal
information about participants of the "sister" under-represented commission (in FIG) using WWW. Postulates for
FIG Working Week (13-17.04.2003) in Paris.
- Collaboration with WHO: preparing issues concerning "Women and Adequate Housing" for the report for the
commission on Human Right according to the resolution 2002/49 – report regional (Poland) in electronic form
(Geneva, Switzerland).
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