Gendered mobilities in the North: Advancing an international comparative perspective

Abstract

The introductory article positions an investigation of geographical employment-related mobilities in the wider field of migration and mobility studies and explains how this may be understood and approached. The authors discuss conceptualizations of work and its relationship to gender and mobility, and application to a northern context. They argue that investigation into the gendered aspects of geographical employment mobilities requires analysing women and men as gendered actors across a variety of spatial scales. It also requires attention to a multitude of mobility contexts and implications that may operate simultaneously. Further, it demands a critical investigation of how gender tends to disappear as an analytical aspect when institutional arrangements and knowledge production take precedence over the immediate practices of everyday life, resulting in gender-blind discourses and failure to see gendered hierarchies. The article shows that women and men's entries and exits into the labour market, and the nature, location, and occupational category of their employment, are shaped by the intersectional relations between gender, class, race, ethnicity, age, and culture. The authors argue that prior to an intersectional consideration it is necessary to examine the interconnections between workplace, household, and the means and conditions of transport. Social and economic interconnectedness exists around the North Atlantic rim, including mobility internally and internationally.

Keywords:

• gender
• migration
• mobilities
• North Atlantic
• work