Women and GIS: Geospatial technologies and feminist geographies

This article explores the emerging intersections between feminism and GIS in relation to changes in GIS technologies and the impacts of such technologies on women's lives. I argue that the past decade has seen an increasing "feminization" of GIS that involves innovations in GIS technologies and research practices, growing critical self-awareness among GIS researchers, and the development of feminist visualization as a research tool. At the same time, GIS and related geospatial technologies have become more embedded and pervasive in everyday life. The effects of new geospatial technologies on the gendered spaces of social and political life at a variety of spatial scales are discussed, with particular attention to gendered identities, geographical dimensions of everyday life, and women's activism.