In the 100 years of its existence, the International Geographical Union has always been a male-dominated organization, although the representation of women has increased in the past decades. This paper presentation focuses on the position of women in the IGU in the 100 years of its existence and analyses the position of women in the governance of the organization: the IGU Executive Committee EC and the steering committees of the IGU Commissions and Task Forces.
In 1922, when IGU was founded, IGU was an exclusively male organization, although a few women participated in the International Geographical Congresses, even in the years before the establishment of the IGU.
In the 100 years of its existence, IGU had one woman as Secretary-General and one woman as President. From 1984 onwards, there has always been at least one woman in the EC and 2020 was the first year in which four of the ten EC members are women. At this moment, 36 percent of the steering committee members of the IGU Commissions and Task Forces are women. Human geography Commissions have more women in their steering committees than physical geography Commissions and female steering committee members are more often from Europe or Latin America than steering committee members from other parts of the world.The presentation concludes with some recommendations to increase the visibility and voice of women geographers in IGU.
Mots clés : women geographers|history of IGU
A105654JD