Women have been mapping the world for centuries – and now they’re speaking up for the people left out of those maps

Women have moved from mapmakers using their bodies to depict maps to being leaders shaping the field of cartography.

By: Melinda Laituri, Colorado State University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: February 4, 2026

Words: 1,294

Last Updated: 2 weeks ago

By Melinda Laituri, Colorado State University

Although women have always been part of the mapping landscape, their contributions to cartography have long been overlooked.

Mapmaking has traditionally featured men, from Mercator’s projection of the world in the 1500s to land surveyors such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson mapping property in the 1700s, to Roger Tomlinson’s development of geographic information systems in the 1960s. Cartography and related geospatial technologies fields

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