Inequality in Death
No, this post is not about death in war (though it is sadly current). It is about "everyday death" in the peaceful country of little Denmark. You see, for a month or two, I have been subscribing to a daily newspaper (Politiken), and being child of old parents who had old friends, I have made a habit of leafing through the death adds and the obituaries, in order to keep "up to date" in a somewhat morbid way. As many women as men dies, media cant really change that, so the actual death adds represent an equal amount of deaths of men and women. However, the obituaries....I am starting to feel really annoyed by the gender bias in the obituaries. I surmise that at least 85% of the obituaries or more are about men. Men. Perhaps it is due to the fact that since most people dying are, naturally, elderly people, the old women dying these years are of a generation where many of them still did not have an active working life. However, that does not mean they did not have a life. But it seems, that all that deserves merit, once you have "passed on" are board memberships and public life activities. Public notice in life earns you the right to public notice in death. So I read a lot about the merits of Mr. this and that, how he was member of this, or secretary of that, or served his political party in this and that regard etc etc. I have yet to see an obituary with a content like:
"Mrs. X was an admirable woman. She almost single-handedly raised four children, because her husband was constantly away, attending board meetings." But I wish someone would write it - and the newspaper accept it for once.

You may think, I am bit weird making a fuss of this. But I think this imbalance is a clear marker of the fact that inequality between men and women, apparent through the imbalanced attention to respectively men and women in public life and media coverage (beyond that of celebrities), still exists. And if we don't pay attention to it, or in our own way try to change the values by which a life is judged, the "equal rights" to worthy attention of our merits as women, be they of a public or more private nature, will continously be violated. Even in death.

If you are one of those, who can't help glancing at the obituaries and death adds, think about it. Is the same bias apparent in your country?
# posted by Lisbeth at: 13:05