In the society that I live in, men and women are treated equally. Since I live in the United States, I assumed every country in the world has the same equality of men and women. I come to find out that in most other countries it is not like that, men over power women. In Greenland, women are treated differently then men. “Women have had relatively little success in advancing their participation on decision-making bodies. The struggle to recruit women candidates and have them elected to political office continues. The attitude of male politicians toward women's participation and tradition-bound voting habits are the reasons often cited for this protracted struggle (Thomsen)”. Along with childbirth and childcare, women were also responsible for sewing skins to make clothes, preserving, processing, and cooking food, caring for the sick and elderly, and helping to build and take care of the family's shelter. Warm, light, and serviceable clothing was perhaps the greatest achievement of the Inuit. For protection against the bitter Arctic winter, even the best modern clothing has not surpassed it.
While men out supporting themselves by hunting fish, sea mammals and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools and shelter. “They hunted mainly seal and caribou, but also whales, walrus, polar bear, musk ox, fox and wolf. The animals were used for food and their skin was used for clothing, blankets, tents and boats. Little was wasted, there was no pollution and, apart from natural trends, animals and people lived in harmony with a land that most people from the south would find hostile in the extreme (Rose).” Men have the opportunities ranging from administration, work environment, quality assurance, medical clinic/hospital, engineering, operations, fire department, and communications.
While I was doing this research about the societal roles of men and women in Greenland, I came across an article that surprised me. Since learning about their roles, I found it stunning that “Greenland is the country with the highest suicide rates. The rate here is 24 times that seen in the United States. Even Japan—a nation with a well-documented suicide—has an annual rate of only about 51 people per 100,000 inhabitants. Greenland's is 100 per 100,000 (George)”. These numbers are shocking and important in this blog post because most of them are teenagers or young adults. No one can conclude on why people commit suicide but we do know that “Shootings and hangings account for 91 percent of male suicides and 70 percent of female suicides (George)”. As I continue to learn about this country, it is heart breaking to hear that my country has the highest suicide rate and “Some suspect that Greenlandic teens choose suicide for the same reason young people do almost everything else—because they see their friends doing it (George)”.
After doing all of the research, I have come to find out that these roles for men and women are still the same. Women stay at home and take care of the children while men make the money and hunt for food. I would like to understand more about the government in Greenland and understand more indebt about the laws they have. As well, I would like to admit that it was a bit difficult to find websites about the societal roles because some websites were either not reliable (i.e. Wikipedia) while others had little information to work with. I would like to mention that I would like to go to Greenland and study the men and women there to get a better feel of how they live and see if women like staying at home and taking care of the children everyday. Finally, I would like to go to Greenland, help bring down the suicide rate and help women fight from them to be able to work.
References:
While men out supporting themselves by hunting fish, sea mammals and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools and shelter. “They hunted mainly seal and caribou, but also whales, walrus, polar bear, musk ox, fox and wolf. The animals were used for food and their skin was used for clothing, blankets, tents and boats. Little was wasted, there was no pollution and, apart from natural trends, animals and people lived in harmony with a land that most people from the south would find hostile in the extreme (Rose).” Men have the opportunities ranging from administration, work environment, quality assurance, medical clinic/hospital, engineering, operations, fire department, and communications.
While I was doing this research about the societal roles of men and women in Greenland, I came across an article that surprised me. Since learning about their roles, I found it stunning that “Greenland is the country with the highest suicide rates. The rate here is 24 times that seen in the United States. Even Japan—a nation with a well-documented suicide—has an annual rate of only about 51 people per 100,000 inhabitants. Greenland's is 100 per 100,000 (George)”. These numbers are shocking and important in this blog post because most of them are teenagers or young adults. No one can conclude on why people commit suicide but we do know that “Shootings and hangings account for 91 percent of male suicides and 70 percent of female suicides (George)”. As I continue to learn about this country, it is heart breaking to hear that my country has the highest suicide rate and “Some suspect that Greenlandic teens choose suicide for the same reason young people do almost everything else—because they see their friends doing it (George)”.
After doing all of the research, I have come to find out that these roles for men and women are still the same. Women stay at home and take care of the children while men make the money and hunt for food. I would like to understand more about the government in Greenland and understand more indebt about the laws they have. As well, I would like to admit that it was a bit difficult to find websites about the societal roles because some websites were either not reliable (i.e. Wikipedia) while others had little information to work with. I would like to mention that I would like to go to Greenland and study the men and women there to get a better feel of how they live and see if women like staying at home and taking care of the children everyday. Finally, I would like to go to Greenland, help bring down the suicide rate and help women fight from them to be able to work.
References:
- Marianne Lykke Thomsen.(1990). Ethnicity and Feminism: Inuit Women in Greenland and Canada. Retrieved from http://carc.org/pubs/v17no3/4.htm.
- Pippa Rose.(2005). The Inuit. Retrieved from http://www.arcticvoice.org/inuit.html.
- Jason George.(2009).The Suicide Capital of the World. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dispatches/2009/10/the_suicide_capital_of_the_world.html.