ABSTRACT
Thompson, in his invaluable history of the surveying profession, observes that the skills of surveyors have always been needed in ‘orderly and property conscious societies’. Surveying is the profession concerned with ownership, dealing with the valuation, auctioneering, and management of both real, and personal property, e.g. livestock, houses, estates, and even shooting rights, and antiques and machinery, and nowadays office blocks, retail centres, and investment portfolios. The ethos of surveying strongly espouses traditional conservative values, and applauds possessive individualism. The fact that women now have ‘the same’ opportunity as men to be surveyors, to serve this landed elite with its strong patriarchal heritage, but not to change it, is a strange form of equality indeed. Both women surveyors and the modern mortgageriat are nowadays joining a very ancient club that was created by, and for, very different types of people.
