Minding the Gender Gap: Working Toward Parity for Women in U.S. Academic Geography

Geography as an academic discipline has historically been male dominated, with no or few women students and faculty until the early 1990s and few female chairs. We examine the status of women in PhD-granting geography departments from 1969 to 2019, focusing on gender, rank, and departmental leadership. Also, we analyze recent data for all geography programs using the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Guide to Geography Programs and an AAG database of community colleges. Findings reveal an overall increase in women faculty in PhD, MA/MS, and BA/BS departments; a lower percentage of female faculty at MA/MS, BA/BS institutions, and community colleges than at PhD programs; and an appreciable reduction in the number of departments with no or only one female faculty member. In 2019, except for community colleges, the percentage of female chairs was higher than that of female full professors, suggesting that senior women are handling disproportionate service loads. The profession is slowly changing, with instructors and assistant professors in PhD institutions reaching parity and a growing percentage of women faculty and leaders in geography, yet there is considerable potential for increased representation, given that approximately half of all recent geography PhD graduates are women.