7th Annual ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence

Honorable Mention Social Science

Submitted by		Elana Wilson
Authors
Category		Social Science
Title		Gender and Nationalism in Nunavut: A Case Study of the 1997 Gender Parity Vote
Affiliation		Scott Polar Research Institute/Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that the Inuit autonomy movement was nationalistic in nature and that the rhetoric of nationalism has played a key role in shaping understandings of gender and conceptualizations of the public sphere in Nunavut, Canada. Nationalism, loosely defined as a principle asserting that the political unit and the ethnic one should be congruent, enjoys great credibility and provides an authoritative vocabulary of identity and political legitimacy for those groups that choose to become ‘national.’ Although nationalism has its roots in Europe, it remains a powerful template for autonomy movements throughout the postcolonial world. Many studies of these postcolonial national movements have elucidated the way in which gender and power are deeply implicated in the nation-building project. The gendered symbolism of the nation assigns men and women different national roles, which are significant in that they influence deeply how men and women come to participate in national politics. This paper explores the interplay between gender and nationalism through a close analysis of the 1997 gender parity proposal, which suggested that men and women should be equally represented in the Nunavut Legislature. Analyzing the creation of Nunavut as a nation-building project, and the 1997 gender parity vote as a moment in which the relationship between gender and nation was particularly clear, highlights the ways in which powerful political ideologies, such as nationalism, can shape political development in the postcolonial and indigenous worlds.