Putting Gender on the Line: Examining the Role of Gender in Social Movement Resistance to the Energy East Pipeline

Abstract

This thesis assesses the role of gender in social movement contestation of TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline. By understanding gender as a social construction and social position from which political action and transformation can occur, the study examines how hegemonic understandings and performances of femininity and masculinity influenced social movement engagement, tactics employed, and activist spaces and dynamics, if at all, within the climate movement in Canada. Using a snowball recruitment method, I interviewed 10 activists from November 2017 to May 2018 from four provinces, all of whom were engaged in the Energy East fight. I found that while particular gendered tactics, such as direct action, were not pivotal in the movement’s ultimate victory, gender did influence how people engaged in activism and how spaces within the movement were structured. Areas such as feminist leadership, non-profit versus grassroots spaces, and the ways in which movement members took up space were where gender played the clearest role. Moreover, some of the findings do reflect what has been found in available literature: that women make up the majority of the environmental base yet are underrepresented in high level spaces and traditional leadership. This thesis also explores potential next steps to make the climate justice movement more inclusive and equitable. While it remains unclear to what extent gender played a decisive role in the ultimate defeat of the pipeline project, it did influence internal dynamics, leadership, and recruitment.