COMING OUT OF THE COUNTRY - COMMUNITY SIZE AND GENDER BALANCE AMONG ALASKAN NATIVES

Previous studies established that Alaskan Native women are more likely than Alaskan Native men to keep full-time jobs, attend college, or mo ve to cities. We heard accounts of this divergence, and its social con sequences, during recent research in the Northwest Arctic and Bristol Bay regions. Informants from several villages claimed that female outm igration was affecting local life. Surveys covering 15 communities con firmed a broad pattern of gender differences in adolescent aspirations and in young adult actions. For this paper we expand our scope beyond the two regions initially studied, and explore the magnitude of Nativ e female outmigration from bush Alaska. Statewide data show a systemat ic relation between Native gender balance and community size, consiste nt with differential migration. In some other societies ''female fligh t'' occurs along rural/urban and associated social class lines, but it s magnitude in Alaska's transcultural context raises particularly acut e issues of individual and cultural survival.