A WOMAN’S PLACE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY GEOMORPHOLOGY

The number of women in geomorphology, like the number of women in geological sciences in general, has grown considerably in recent years. Although women still constitute a decided minority in geomorphology, social changes in western cultures over the decades since World War II have made women’s experiences in the discipline very different now from what it was for their academic mothers and grandmothers. Today, it is routine and expected for women geomorphologists to do fieldwork, and it is common for these professionals to have families, but this has not always been the case. What was it like to be among the first professional women geomorphologists in the mid-twentieth century? What restrictions and challenges did they face? What sacrifices did they make? What influenced their career choice? To help answer these questions, this research focuses on five women who in 1980 responded to a request for information about their lives as professional geomorphologists. Source materials for this study include the women’s written responses to that request, oral history interviews, and other archival and published materials. Results show some commonalities in their backgrounds and experiences, and in their views about women in geomorphology. Most encountered discriminatory situations early in their careers. Marriage, children, and lack of sufficient physical strength for challenging fieldwork were mentioned as factors that would or could limit a woman's career in geomorphology. The women credited their success as professional geomorphologists to a love of nature or travel engendered primarily by their parents, to school settings where it was considered normal for women to be able to accomplish whatever they set out to do, and to regarding themselves as geomorphologists who happened to be women. This investigation promotes a more complete understanding of the history of geomorphology by considering the perspective and experiences of its early women practitioners. People in groups underrepresented today in geomorphology, or in earth science in general, might perceive useful analogies between their present challenges and challenges that were faced by the women studied here.