Phase I
“2013-2015”
Phase I \\ 2013-2015
International Conference and Report
Project partners in the circumpolar region joined hands to organize the international conference Gender Equality in the Arctic – Current realities, future challenges.
The conference took place in Akureyri, Iceland in October 2014 and attracted 150 scholars, NGOs, politicians, government and business representatives from all the Arctic States. Information about the conference itself, partners and sponsors, as well as recordings of all conference sessions can be found on the conference website.
The report Gender Equality in the Arctic: Current realities, future challenges (pub. 2015) builds on the comprehensive presentations and discussions that took place during the conference in Akureyri. The report contributes to advancing debate and research on gender issues and calls attention to the continued disparity between women and men with regard to economic participation and political empowerment.
Key outcome of the report are policy relevant highlights derived from the conference material:
Gender issues and equality should be a priority in the Arctic region
Women’s access to and participation in political and economic spheres in the public or private sectors must be improved.
Arctic states bear an obligation to ensure gender equality and eliminate all forms of discrimination.
Diversity within gender categories must be respected and complex gender identities taken into account.
Economic diversity and knowledge based companies will be a key to sustainable northern development in the future. Innovation and entrepreneurship are vital to community and regional development in the north.
Policy concerning climate change must include women’s and indigenous peoples’ perspectives.
Gender roles are in the process of gradual transition. Men need to be more actively engaged in the gender debate.
A greater understanding of social contexts and determinants is needed for effective suicide prevention.
Migration patterns must be taken into account in policy-making.
Achieving gender equality requires a combination of different tools, f.ex. Gender Based Analysis (GBA) and Gender mainstreaming.
State centered discourses continue to set the agenda in the Arctic. The traditional “state security” framework needs competition and critical analysis.
Diversity in educational opportunities and in the labor market must be created or maintained. Education has a gendered dimension and attitudes towards education must change.
Responses to change are diverse and context based, and require adaptive capacity from individuals as well as communities. Males and females respond and adapt differently to change.
Analysis reveals a contradiction between a “masculine” discourse of resource utilization and “feminine” discourse of climate change threats.
Health and well-being in Arctic communities must be taken into account in policy making
The concept of historical trauma can be useful in explaining social realities in troubled Arctic communities.
Alternative media provides opportunities to view, re-view, observe and recreate representations of gender.