-
8. “Getting There without Aiming at It”: Women’s Experiences in Becoming Cartographers
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
169 CHAPTER 8 We have now come to the point of exploring the gendered map world of contemporary cartography, offering us a chance to dialogue with some thirty-eight women cartographers about their experiences. This chapter and the following one draw heavily on the interviews I conducted with these cartographers. Where appropriate, I have also included materials I gathered for the vignettes in the preceding chapters.1 The formats of the previous two chapters (6 and 7) and the next two (9 and 10) raise an interesting issue. Does one learn more from the personally distinct narratives attached to each individual in the earlier chapters, or is much more gained from reading the anonymized accounts embedded in the next two chapters? Between a woman’s first spark of interest in doing cartographic work and the latter-day burst of accomplishment lies a career filled with twists and turns, wider allegiances and interests, and contradictions. The body of literature on gender and occupations is a vast one; this chapter can highlight only the most relevant works. Ellen P. Cook (1993), for example, speaks about the continuing sex differentiation in the labour market. Gerstein, Lichtman, and Barokas (1988) found that interests and aspirations in careers are still gendered. Lassalle and Spokane (1987) have found that women have a “discontinuous” career pattern, which, in effect, means that women are required to be more persistent and intensive in their “Getting There without Aiming at It”: Women’s Experiences in Becoming Cartographers CHAPTER 8 170 involvement with their work. The source of such a career pattern is twofold . On the one hand, women see family needs as a vital component of life. Cook reminds us that it is the wife’s career that adapts to meet family needs, while men follow the ethos that “making it” occupationally “requires single -minded commitment” (Cook, 1993: 231). On the other hand, women are greeted by an occupational culture, especially in those occupations traditionally held by men, that contains “stereotypic masculine characteristics,” leading to an emphasis on “competitiveness, preoccupation with individual power, and acceptance of sexual aggressiveness and language” (Cook, 1993: 233–34). Nancy Johnson Smith indicates that very few studies take “the viewpoint of women themselves, about the development of their aspirations and how women arrive at the occupationally related decisions they do make” (Smith, 1997). This chapter takes up Smith’s suggestion in relation to women in the map world. There are still no studies that explore in detail the career contingencies of women from their own perspective. Within the larger framework of my book, I hope in this chapter to shed light on the social processes that surround women’s seeking to become cartographers. The women’s accomplishments suggest a wide range of cartographic involvement: carrying out theoretical work on graphic variables and timelines , and on 3D maps; playing key roles in developing national atlases (electronic, historical, and demographic); developing innovative instructional programs, from elementary school to university levels; promoting innovative maps for under-represented groups, the visually impaired, and the colour blind; substantively contributing to the establishment of gis research centres in a developing country, and forming a family of equivalent disciplines in geoinformatics. Across age, experience, and contributions, cartographers share experiences that point to sometimes long incubation periods, career detours, and wider allegiances and interests, while sorting through the ideological contradictions in cartography. GETTING THAT FIRST SPARK The seed of interest in maps, that “first spark,” originated in early childhood experiences, and, for many, the father played a pivotal role in igniting that spark: My first active contact with maps was in childhood, because during the Second World War my father was working as a teacher of geography…. He was fascinated with maps and with music! These two spheres are very important in my whole life. (Marta: email to author, 2 April 2001)2 [3.235.227.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:00 GMT) WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES IN BECOMING CARTOGRAPHERS 171 … it already started when I was a kid…. My father … was involved in … selling and buying land … and sometimes I coloured in the maps. He asked me, “Do you like drawing? Do you like?” And then I got interested in cartography . (Els: 1)3 Eva Siekierska described the important influence of her father, who was “an avid painter,” which most likely stimulated her interest in visual arts/ cartography. For some cartographers it was the home that generated that first spark: [Land survey] was something we discussed very often in our family...