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1. Gender Empowerment and Fate Control

   Rozanova-Smith, M.; Petrov, A.; Korkina Williams, V.; Absalonsen, J.; Alty, R.; Arnfjord, S.; Apok, C.; Biscaye, E.; Black., J.; Carothers, C.; et al (April 2021, Gender Equality in the Arctic)

   Oddsdóttir, E.E.; Ágústsson, H.O. (Ed.)

   The Chapter aims to deepen the understanding of gender equality and empowerment issues in the Arctic region at the national, regional, and local levels, and identify concrete strategies for gender political, economic, and civic empowerment, thereby facilitating sustainable policy-making processes for the New Arctic. The Chapter "Empowerment and Fate Control" is a part of the peer-reviewed Pan-Arctic Report "Gender Equality in the Arctic," undertaken under the auspices of the Arctic Council's Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) and the Icelandic Chairmanship Programme 2019-2021. 

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2. Gender Empowerment in the Arctic (2016-2020)

   https://doi.org/10.18739/A2000019Z  

   Rozanova-Smith, Marya; Petrov, Andrey; Absalonsen, Joanna; Arnfjord, Steven; Heleniak, Timothy; Gaini, Firouz; Mills, Suzanne; Poturaeva, Aleksandra; Ramage, Justine; Þrastardóttir, Bergljót (January 2022, NSF Arctic Data Center)

   The collaborative study on gender equality and empowerment in the Arctic (UGEEA) aims to improve understanding of gender equality issues in the New Arctic at the national, regional, and local levels, identify concrete strategies for gender political, economic, and civic empowerment, and thereby facilitate sustainable policymaking for the New Arctic. This study employs an inclusive, collaborative approach to collect and analyze datasets, documents, and case studies to understand to what extent political, economic, and civic empowerment is distributed by gender. Broader impacts of the UGEEA Project include recommendations for the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, raising public awareness of gender issues in the Arctic, and the development of a publicly available data compendium on gender empowerment. The study also aims to narrow the existing knowledge gaps on gender empowerment across Circumpolar regions by including an assessment of gender empowerment at different levels relevant to the Arctic countries — national/quasi-national (for Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland), subnational (regional), municipal, and local (community) levels. The dataset examines gender earnings gap, gender disparity in tertiary education, and women's political leadership in the Arctic at the regional/(sub)national levels. 

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3. Electricity access empowers women through expansion of economic, physical, and mental spaces in Zambia

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103687  

   Kannan, Sudha; Bessette, Douglas; Makai, Likonge (October 2024, Energy Research & Social Science)

   Expanding electricity access (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7) and empowering women (SDG 5) are closely linked. Most studies quantifying the benefits of the former for women focus on their economic empowerment; however, if and how such access results in women's empowerment is best understood by examining the cultural context, norms, and gender roles in which that access occurs. For instance, time saved from the use of electric appliances may be used for productive engagements, but if gender roles restrict women from leaving the home or engaging in paid work, such benefits are not realized. Here, we delve deeper into the multi-faceted and context-specific concept of women's empowerment via 28 semi-structured interviews with Zambian women. We include households with and without electricity to understand women's subjective meaning of empowerment and how access to electricity may (dis) empower them. We analyze their responses using Deshmukh-Ranadive's (2005) Spaces approach to empowerment which categorizes an individual's spaces into physical, economic, political, socio-cultural, and mental space. We find that electricity access empowers women by expanding their economic and physical, along with mental, space. This occurs via paid opportunities outside the home using electrical appliances and women reporting greater economic independence, camaraderie, self-reliance, and agency as a result. Additionally, by asking women to define what empowerment means to them, we not only bolster the claim that electricity access empowers women both economically and socially, but also ensure future programs account for empowerment explicitly in their plans. 

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4. Gender Equality for a Thriving, Sustainable Arctic

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910825  

   Oddsdóttir, Embla Eir; Ágústsson, Hjalti Ómar; Svensson, Eva-Maria; Hoogensen Gjørv, Gunhild; Kendall, Sarah Seabrook; Smieszek, Malgorzata; Prior, Tahnee; Hayfield, Erika; Williamson, Karla Jessen; Rozanova-Smith, Marya; et al (October 2021, Sustainability)

   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. 

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5. Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909326117  

   Rotondi, Valentina; Kashyap, Ridhi; Pesando, Luca Maria; Spinelli, Simone; Billari, Francesco C. (June 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   For billions of people across the globe, mobile phones enable relatively cheap and effective communication, as well as access to information and vital services on health, education, society, and the economy. Drawing on context-specific evidence on the effects of the digital revolution, this study provides empirical support for the idea that mobile phones are a vehicle for sustainable development at the global scale. It does so by assembling a wealth of publicly available macro- and individual-level data, exploring a wide range of demographic and social development outcomes, and leveraging a combination of methodological approaches. Macro-level analyses covering 200+ countries reveal that mobile-phone access is associated with lower gender inequality, higher contraceptive uptake, and lower maternal and child mortality. Individual-level analyses of survey data from sub-Saharan Africa, linked with detailed geospatial information, further show that women who own a mobile phone are better informed about sexual and reproductive health services and empowered to make independent decisions. Payoffs are larger among the least-developed countries and among the most disadvantaged micro-level clusters. Overall, our findings suggest that boosting mobile-phone access and coverage and closing digital divides, particularly among women, can be powerful tools to attain empowerment-related sustainable development goals, in an ultimate effort to enhance population health and well-being and reduce poverty. 

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