Gender and Intersectionality in Arctic Research
Although gender is a topic in the fields of Arctic demography, political participation, and in studies on health, amongst other areas, gender-related research studies as a field of social sciences has thus far been conspicuously disparate, i.e. conducted in different parts of the Circumpolar North (Russia, Fennoscandia, North America) with hardly any interconnection. There are no integrated approaches in this field as of yet, despite the obvious importance of gender for indigenous and other communities throughout the Arctic.
Moreover, the theoretical ambit of Gender Studies in the North is strongly underdeveloped. We propose that a gendered perspective could engage with questions of intersectionality, i.e. the ways in which multiple categories of dominance and marginality interact with each other. Owing to past and present practices of marginalization of indigenous groups in the Circumpolar North, an intersectional approach is of particular importance.
In addition, owing to the scarcity of gender perspectives in natural sciences, gendered research methods and designs, and the male dominance in the history of Polar research there is a need for identifying common ground between History of Science, Science and Technology Studies, and Gender Studies with regard to Polar research (including Antarctica), and for raising awareness within the scientific community for gendered perspectives on research design and research practice.
