Map Worlds: A History of Women in Cartography

9. “We Are Good Ghosts!”: Orientations and Expectations of Women Cartographers

185 CHAPTER 9 By the time a woman enters cartography as a fully working professional, the data indicate that she stands out in many significant ways from her male colleagues (van den Hoonaard, 2000c): she brings with her an education or training in a wide variety of areas, and her career takes on the form of an occupational zigzag.1 Her cartographic work reflects this wide disciplinary and occupational experience. This chapter explores the outlooks she brings into that structure. Her outlook shapes the way in which she participates in that social structure—it both affirms and rejects the occupational norms. More specifically, these norms centre on the purpose of maps and on the relevance of her wider allegiances and interests: personal, professional, and disciplinary. This chapter closely examines the occupational attributes women cartographers bring into their field. These attributes pertain to resolving the tension while creating maps that are both beautiful and useful, and to the role of relationships, personal and collegial, on one hand, and disciplinary, on the other hand.2 This chapter also speaks about the sentiments and ideas that the interviewed women have expressed about their work in cartography and on cartography-related work. “We Are Good Ghosts!”: Orientations and Expectations of Women Cartographers CHAPTER 9 186 RECONCILING THE BEAUTY AND USEFULNESS OF MAPS The question of the beauty of maps, while at the same time privileging their usefulness, surfaces frequently in the interviews. By the time she reaches that moment, a woman cartographer has already worked through the seeming contradiction of whether beauty or utility should be emphasized in maps: that is, whether maps are an end in themselves or are tools for others. In many respects, the issue of beauty versus utility has come to the fore because of the digitization of maps. Both men and women express deep concerns about the poor design on some maps created by gis. The late Borden D. Dent produced the standard text in cartography on the subject, Cartography : Thematic Map Design (1996), and Terry A. Slocum devoted a large proportion of his book Thematic Cartography and Visualization (1999) to design. Even from the perspective of gis specialists (such as Ed Madej in Cartographic Design Using ArcView gis [2001]), there are growing concerns about the struggle between beauty and usefulness. Judith Tyner’s Principles of Map Design (2010) shows how beauty can still manifest itself in very useful maps. There is clearly a struggle about the role of aesthetically pleasing maps in the face of digitalization. Nuvyn is so entranced with making maps that she confessed that “if I cannot create a map, I will die with my eyes open”— an expression in her language that indicates a single-hearted devotion to a cause (Nuvyn: 1). What stands out from those early experiences when a woman first became interested in maps (van den Hoonaard, 2000c) is the attraction of “beautiful” maps, involving graphics that would define her involvement in cartography many years later: What brings you joy about cartography? For me, the beauty of the maps. The beauty of the maps. And the graphic designs of them. (Liisa: 2) [Y]ou need to find some beauty [in maps]. (Ramona: 1) [T]hey [in other countries] made so many beautiful, so many nice maps. So why are we are not doing so? When I go back [to my country] I really want to put the same as what the people are doing here [at an international training institute]. (Sawa: 2) Nevertheless, men criticize the women’s interest in cultivating beautiful , aesthetically pleasing maps, as one cartographer reported: “One of the teachers … looked at one of the products that I made and said that was a ORIENTATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF WOMEN CARTOGRAPHERS 187 very pretty map and I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ And he said, ‘Men make maps and women make pretty maps.’ And I was quite offended by that comment at that time” (Ruth: 6). However, the desire to combine mathematical precision and graphically beautiful details is the most important element that would guide her and others through their careers: for some, it would become a mission of sorts: And the artistic sense is the combination with the science part, which is important as well. (Ruth: 3) What do you enjoy most about cartographic work… what gives you the most satisfaction? … When the beautiful map and math map come out and when the work...