Are Women Taking over Power and Labour from Men? Gender Relations in Pre- and Post-colonial Greenland

Abstract

In pre-colonial Greenland, the breadwinner was traditionally the hunter. The ability to hunt and their role as breadwinners gave the men structural power and prestige. In order better to understand contemporary gender relations in Greenland, this paper examines “structural power” where men, traditionally due to being the breadwinners, were the powerful ones in the household. It is argued that, even though more women have become breadwinners today, the structural power of men still persists but might be undergoing changes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The word “qallunaat” is the plural of qallunaaq, meaning a white man or woman. http://www.ilinniusiorfik.gl/oqaatsit/daka.

2 The great hunter was the person who possessed and exercised the structural power in his arena in the same way as a patriarch did. Among others, Karl Marx and Max Weber provide an understanding of the concept “patriarchate” as a social structure, in which older men, through their authority, dominated over young men, women, and children (Ellingsæter, 1999, p. 151). It should be noted, however, that in pre-colonial Greenland there existed a female domination over male household members without the ability to hunt and provide.

3 Due to length constraints for this paper, the period from colonization until World War II will not be further commented upon or analysed