Feminist and Environmentalist Public Governance in the Arctic

Abstract

This chapter examines the Arctic Council, a body of intergovernmental and transnational cooperation founded in 1996, from the perspective of feminist governance. The author evaluates the work of the Arctic Council with respect to both gender equality and ecological policy. One of her key findings is that Arctic residents, those directly affected by the consequences of global and local politics, are of secondary concern to Arctic policy making, and this marginalization is clouded by rhetoric that obscures this fact. The author challenges the received notion of gender equality in the Nordic welfare states, an area of analysis currently overlooked, especially in regards to the Arctic.