Gender Equality for a Thriving, Sustainable Arctic

Embla Oddsdóttir,Karla Williamson,Sarah Kendall,Varvara Williams,Andrey Petrov,Eva-Maria Svensson,Malgorzata Smieszek,Marya Rozanova-Smith,Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv,Tahnee Prior,Erika Hayfield,Hjalti Ágústsson

doi:10.3390/su131910825

Abstract

On 21 May 2021, a milestone Pan-Arctic Report: Gender Equality in the Arctic was published in tandem with the Arctic Council’s Ministerial Meeting held in Reykjavík, 19–20 May 2021. This article provides a brief review of the report and its major findings across six chapters that address key themes concerning gender equality in the Arctic: Law and Governance, Security, Gender and Environment, Migration and Mobility, Indigeneity, Gender, Violence, Reconciliation and Empowerment and Fate Control. A major conclusion of the report is that accessible, comparable, gender-disaggregated, and Arctic -specific data is severely lacking. Further, all chapters highlight the importance of gender-based analysis and gender mainstreaming in all decision-making processes at national and regional levels. The varying roles that gender—and its intersections with existing inequalities—plays in mediating the impacts of climate change and other socioeconomic transformations are also discussed throughout the report. The Arctic Council is identified as the main driver for implementing recommendations that were provided and discussed at the Council’s Ministerial Meeting and in the Reykjavík Declaration 2021, where the eight ministers of Arctic states “Emphasize[s] the importance of gender equality and respect for diversity for sustainable development in the Arctic… encourage[s] the mainstreaming of gender-based analysis in the work of the Arctic Council and call[s] for further action to advance gender equality in the Arctic”. This report and its policy relevant highlights, address these priorities and serve as a knowledge base for promoting gender equality and non-discrimination in the Arctic.

Highlights

There is an inherent gender imbalance in the on-going policy discussions and decisionmaking about the Arctic, as women are underrepresented in Arctic governing bodies, administration, business, and science
On the basis of the multidisciplinary and multi-methods approach, six overarching themes were identified as central issue areas for gender equality in the Arctic
The second theme is security and, in particular, human security, focusing on the impacts of inequalities in the Arctic that are exacerbated by climate change, thereby identifying trends in insecurities from the individual and community levels to the state

Summary

Introduction

There is an inherent gender imbalance in the on-going policy discussions and decisionmaking about the Arctic, as women are underrepresented in Arctic governing bodies, administration, business, and science. Phase I of the GEA project (GEA I) was an international conference Gender Equality in the Arctic—Current Realities, Future Challenges, which took place in Akureyri, Iceland in October 2014 It resulted in an eponymous conference report published in 2015 by the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs [7]. The main objective of the conference was to promote an extensive, policy relevant dialogue on gender equality putting current realities and future challenges into context, in light of climate and environmental changes as well as economic and social developments in the region. The conference was organized into seven different themes, and in the conclusions of the conference, the participants identified issues that are relevant to the on-going discussions on gender equality in the Arctic

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Results

Conclusion