‘In the Interest of All Mankind’: Women and the Environmental Protection of Antarctica

Abstract

The 1959 Antarctic Treaty mandates that Antarctica ‘shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord’. This, the treaty makers assert, is ‘in the interest of all mankind’. Scholars of the Antarctic, Antarctic officials, and environmental activists have generally assumed that ‘all mankind’ means ‘all humankind’. Historically, however, Antarctica has been the almost exclusive preserve of ‘mankind’ only. Womankind, at least until very recently, has been almost entirely absent from both the continent and our study of it. The little research that does exist on women’s historical role in Antarctica has not addressed the role of women activists both on the continent and in Antarctic politics more broadly. This chapter will explore the role of women activists in the successful World Park Antarctica campaign of the 1980s. In 1991, the World Park campaign culminated in one of the most significant international environmental agreements in existence today, an indefinite ban on Antarctic mining and the comprehensive environmental protection of an entire continent. The very few studies of the history and development of this agreement almost invariably privilege the role of diplomats and political leaders who were (and still are) almost overwhelmingly white men. Women activists, however, were one of the major driving forces behind the unprecedented success of this campaign, and an understanding of the central role of women in Antarctic history and politics, and broader feminist and gender-based approaches, is crucial to understanding the past, present, and future of the continent.