The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981.

Organized by four friends Gertrude Emerson Sen

Gertrude Emerson Sen

Gertrude Emerson Sen was an early 20th-century expert on Asia and a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers.After teaching English in Japan, Sen returned to the United States to became the editor of Asia magazine. In 1920 she undertook a round-the-world expedition which included stunt...

, Marguerite Harrison

Marguerite Harrison

Marguerite Elton Harrison was a reporter, spy, film maker, and translator who was one of the four founding members of the Society of Woman Geographers.-Biography:...

, Blair Niles

Blair Niles

Blair Niles was an American novelist and travel writer. She was a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers. Blair Niles is a pen name of Mary Blair Rice, adopted from her late second husband's name, Robert Niles, Jr.- History :...

 and Gertrude Mathews Shelby, to bring together women interested in geography, world exploration, anthropology and related fields. Membership was restricted to women who had "done distinctive work whereby they have added to the world's store of knowledge concerning the countries on which they have specialized, and have published in magazines or in book form a record of their work."

Among its founders were Harriet Chalmers Adams

Harriet Chalmers Adams

Harriet Chalmers Adams was an American explorer, writer and photographer. She travelled extensively in South America, Asia and the South Pacific in the early 20th century, and published accounts of her journeys in the National Geographic magazine...

, the society's first president in December 1925, a post which she held until 1933. In 1930, the society presented its first medal to Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...

. Prominent members included, Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

, photographer Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her...

, novelist Fannie Hurst

Fannie Hurst

Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...

, historian Mary Ritter Beard

Mary Ritter Beard

Mary Ritter Beard was an American historian and archivist, who played an important role in the women's suffrage movement and was a lifelong advocate of social justice through educational and activist roles in both the labor and woman's rights movements...

, mountain climber Annie Peck and anthropologist Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....

 who would be presented with their Gold Medal in 1942.

The society based in Washington, D.C. presently has approximately 500 members. Groups are located in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, San Francisco, and Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.