De grønlandske kvindeorganisationers rolle i den politiske udviklingsproces – set i et postkolonialt perspektiv

Abstract

Mange af de kvinder, der tog aktiv del i det kvindeorganisatoriske arbejde fra Nyordningen i 1950 og frem til Hjemmestyrets indforelse i 1979, sidder i dag pa indflydelsesrige poster i Gronland, og har pa forskellig made vaeret med til at praege den politiske og erhvervsmaessige udvikling. I dag synes det kvindeorganisatoriske arbejde at kore med noget lavere profil og er i hoj grad koncentreret omkring bevarelse og videregivelse af de traditionelle kvinde-kvalifikationer i fangerkulturen. Konsdiskussionen er delvist forstummet, selvom der er en raekke presserende problemer: Vold mod kvinder, kvinder tjener i gennemsnit en tredjedel mindre end maendene (Gronlands Statistik 2014), den sociale og okonomiske ulighed imellem kvinder er voksende. Artiklen samler op pa de erfaringer og de styrkepositioner, kvinderne historisk har erhvervet sig i det kvinde-organisatoriske arbejde, og kommer ud fra et kons- og postkolonialt perspektiv, med nogle bud pa, hvorfor kvindesporgsmalet og kvindeorganisering ikke star sa hojt pa dagsordenen laengere. I artiklen forfolges en forforstaelse af, at der med den danske kolonialisering af Gronland igangsattes en moderniserings- og patriarkaliseringsproces, som gradvist skabte en radikal ny social organisering af samfundet, bade pa struktur- og hverdagslivsniveau, som ikke blot forandrede de sociale relationer imellem konnene og imellem kvinder (og maend) indbyrdes, men ogsa fik naturaliseret den vestlige (patriarkalske) konsdiskurs i en sadan grad, at mulige potentialer i en praekolonial konsforstaelse blev usynlige i den gronlandske udviklingsproces. Vi konkluderer, at der i det postkoloniale feministiske tankeunivers findes potentialer til igen at italesaette konsrelationerne i Gronland og kommer med bud pa, hvorledes indsigt i de prae- og postkoloniale gronlandske konskonstruktioner kan bidrage til skabelse af nye fremtidsbilleder. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Kirsten Bransholm Pedersen and Najaaraq Paniula: The Role of the Greenlandic Women’s Organization in the Process of Political Development – From a Post-Colonial Perspective Today, many of the Greenlandic women who took an active part in the women’s movement from 1950, when it was new, until the introduction of Home Rule in 1979, occupy influential positions in Greenland. They have, in various ways, influenced political developments within the country. Today the women’s movement is running but has a somewhat lower profile, and is largely concentrated on the preservation of the traditional female skills in the former hunting culture. The gender discussion is partially silenced, although there are a number of urgent problems: violence against women, women earn on average a third less than men (Statistics Greenland 2014), and the social and economic inequality between women is growing. Employing a gender and postcolonial perspective, this article provides an overview of the experience and strengths women historically have gained through their participation in the women’s movement. Furthermore it puts forward some suggestions as to why women’s issues and women’s organization is almost absent on today’s agenda. The article is based on the preconception that the Danish colonization of Greenland initiated a process of modernization and patriarchalization which gradually created a radical new structural and social organization of society. The process not only changed the social relations between the sexes and among women (and men), but also got naturalized Western (patriarchal) gender discourse to such an extent that the potentials that could be found in a pre-colonial understanding of the relation between women and men became invisible in the Greenlandic development process. We conclude that the postcolonial feminist theories have the potential to re-articulate the discussion on gender in Greenland, and make suggestions concerning how insight into the pre- and post-colonial Greenlandic gender constructions can contribute to the creation of new possible gender images. Keywords: Greenland, women’s movement, post-colonial feminist theories, ”genderlessness”.