Female flight? Gender balance and outmigration by Native Alaskan villagers.” Arctic Medical Research 53(Supplement 2):189–193

• Main Authors: Lawrence C. Hamilton, Carole L. Seyfrit
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1994
• Subjects: Arctic; eskimo*; Inupiat
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.401.5580; http://pubpages.unh.edu/~lch/female_flight.pdf

Abstract: Recent surveys in Alaska's predominantly Native Bristol Bay and Northwest Arctic regions find that female high school students, more often than males, expect to migrate permanently away from their home community and region. Reports from high school graduates indicate that more young women do move away after graduation; other research establishes that Native women more often attend college or hold full-time jobs. Statewide 1990 Census data confirm a significant relation between percent female and community population, consistent with the hypothesis that “female flight ” from Native villages is shifting the young adult gender balance. Bush villages tend to have more young Native men than women, whereas larger cities have more young Native women than men. Such imbalances must directly affect opportunities for marriage, family, and cultural continuity. They could also have wide-ranging indirect consequences, including exacerbation of village social and health problems associated with unmarried young men. Over the past several years we have been conducting research among high school students in Alaska's Bristol Bay and Northwest Arctic regions (predominantly Yup ' ik and Inupiat Eskimo, respectively). Our initial interest focused on the ways in which rapid natural resource