Table Of ContentROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
WOMEN AND WORK
Volume 7
SURVEYING SISTERS
SURVEYING SISTERS
Women in a Traditional Male
Profession
CLARA GREED
First published in 1991 by Routledge
This edition first published in 2022
by Routledge
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© 1991 Clara Greed
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-27038-8 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28476-7 (Volume 7) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28479-8 (Volume 7) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-29701-7 (Volume 7) (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003297017
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies
may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and
would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable
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Surveying sisters
Over the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number
of women entering the surveying profession. Fewer than five per cent of
practising surveyors are women, but women now comprise twenty per
cent of students. Surveying Sisters explores the question of whether
'more* will mean 'better', either for women surveyors themselves, or for
women as consumers of the built environment.
Clara Greed investigates the experiences of individual women
surveyors, as well as studying the nature of the male majority. Taking a
broadly feminist perspective and using an ethnographic approach, she
develops a strong theoretical basis, incorporating the gender, class, and
spatial dimensions of the situation, centring around the concept that
surveying has its own distinct professional subculture. She traces the
historical roots of the profession, and its attitudes to women, and makes
constructive suggestions for improving the position of women in
surveying today.
This is a highly topical study, at a time when the surveying profession
is eager to attract more women in order to allay the effects of declining
numbers of school leavers and potential 'manpower* shortages. It will
be of interest to people concerned about issues of gender in disciplines
such as sociology, management studies, higher education, urban
geography, and women's studies, higher education, urban geography,
and women's studies, and to the women and men who work in the
surveying and the other built environment professions.
Surveying sisters
Women in a traditional male profession
Clara Greed
London and New York
First published 1991
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
©1991 Clara Greed
Typeset by Laserscript Limited, Mitcham, Surrey
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Greed, Clara
Surveying sisters.
1. Great Britain. Women surveyors
I. Title
526.9082
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Greed, Clara, 1948-
Surveying sisters : women in a traditional male profession / Clara Greed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Women surveyors I. Title.
TA534.G74 1990 90-8210
526'.0882—dc20 dP
ISBN 0-415-04845-1
0-415-04489-8 (pbk)
Contents
List of figures and tables vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
Part one Surveying sisters? A study of the position and
perceptions of women chartered surveyors
1 Is more better? 3
2 Conceptual perspectives 20
Part two The historical perspective
3 The background to surveying up to 1900 43
4 Twentieth century development of surveying 58
5 Women's presence 1945 onwards 76
Part three Education and practice today
6 The educational context 89
7 Fitting into surveying education 105
8 The position of women in surveying practice 123
9 Getting by in the world of surveying 143
Part four Implications for the built environment and the
profession
10 The influence of the subculture on what is built 161
11 Conclusion 180
V
