Women’s participation in decision making - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 215

with the policies of the Canadian state, to settle land claims and to create
the GN, a process that greatly emphasized the right to exercise authority
over land, a traditionally male domain of activity (Cassidy 1993; Damas
2002). The economic and political emphasis on natural resources and the
centrality of the image of the hunter (Dybbroe 1988; Thomsen 1988) may
have positioned masculine concerns at the centre of Inuit nation-building.
Further, the emphasis on Inuit, and other Indigenous, women as 'givers
of life, custodians of culture and language and caretakers of children' (RCAP
1996:64) positions domesticity at the centre of Inuit womanhood, creat-
ing a situation in which the mobility of political office is problematic and
women are distanced from the public sphere - the space of Western political
decision-making and the space upon which political institutions in Nunavut
are modelled. Nancy Karetak Lindell, a Member of Parliament for Nunavut,
cited the criticism faced by female politicians for leaving their families
behind when travelling as a disincentive for women to participate in formal
territorial politics ( Nunatsiaq News 2001). Other reasons cited in interviews
for women's low participation in elected politics include the difficulty of
balancing family, career and community obligations and the challenge of
gaining access to the funds and supportive networks required for political
campaigns. 15
Prior to the public plebiscite on 26 May 1997, political leaders in favour
of gender parity toured Nunavut's communities as part of the 'Yes' cam-
paign and published articles and made radio appearances. Subsequently, a
smaller 'No' campaign, championed by Manitok Thompson, a prominent
female politician who had served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly
in the GNWT, was established in opposition. However, all meetings about
gender parity had relatively low attendance, and turnout for the final vote,
in which gender parity was rejected by 57 per cent of those casting bal-
lots, was only 39 per cent of all eligible voters (Dahl 1997). Regardless, the
debate amongst the politically engaged was heated and clearly elucidates
some of the major discourses active in conceptualizing gender relationships
and women's political participation in Nunavut, a debate that drew upon
both traditional Inuit and modern Western ideas of politics and who belongs
in spaces of power.
Arguments based on competing perspectives of traditional
Inuit culture
Although the idea of gender parity in the Nunavut legislative assembly was
not initially presented or discussed in relationship to Inuit tradition, the idea
of traditional and inherent gender equality within Inuit society came to be
used by both supporters and opponents of gender parity, who framed their
arguments with competing views on the continuity between traditional gen-
der relationships and those of the present-day. Supporters of gender parity