Gender as Contradiction: From Dichotomies to Diversity in Natural Resource Extraction

Citation:

O’Shaughnessy, Sara, and Naomi T. Krogman. 2011. “Gender as Contradiction: From Dichotomies to Diversity in Natural Resource Extraction.” Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2): 134–43. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.01.001.

Authors: Sara O'Shaughnessy, Naomi T. Krogman

Abstract:

Given the varied nature of resource dependent communities, the gendered experiences of women and men may vary in unexpected and contradictory ways. Building on a review and critique of existing theoretical approaches and studies of US and Canadian extractive resource communities in both the feminist and rural social science literature, we provide an analytical approach to engage with gender in the context of these dramatic changes. Our framework, which integrates key insights from recent feminist theorizing, summarizes emergent constructions of masculinity and femininity in a given context by emphasizing the possible contradictions along three broad lines: material, material-discursive, and discursive.

Keywords: gender, natural resources, feminist research, feminist theory, environment, division of labor

Topics: Economies, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Livelihoods

Year: 2011