While there are so different aspects of studying abroad, the most important part is the studying. After looking at the list of courses, I chose to take Gender Equality. It seemed like it was going to be the most interesting to me compared to literature, politics, art, and government. As it turned out, this class and I had a love-hate relationship throughout the semester. On the first day, I thought I was going to love it because the class was based on discussion from our readings and there were such extreme differences of cultures in the classroom. Unfortunately, during the second week of school I had a breakdown because I realized that the mixed graduate/undergraduate class was going to be more of a challenge than I thought. We were assigned to read about 100 pages a week and after reading some of the articles and not understanding, I didn't think this was the class for me. I had never taken a theoretical and discussion based class before and it made me nervous to share my opinions about gender equality in front of people that I knew were not as fortunate as me. After some mom inspiration, I decided to push through and give it a real shot. I learned how to analyze the articles and relate it back to my culture to share with my class. Our professor also gave us a chart that helped us pick out what the argument was, the background of the data, and the conclusion that the author came to. As we dissected each topic in class, I started to enjoy it a little more.
Norway is known as one of the most gender equal countries in the world. There are still some areas of improvement but, because of gender equality policies and mainstreaming, women and men are seen as equals. After being in the midst of such an equal society this summer Norway started to seem like an utopia. Policies are in place so that men and women have the same representation in political elections, on the boards of the major corporations and in the most common job advertisements. Women and men are both given time off to help raise their families together and studies have shown that in doing so it creates longevity and happiness in the relationship. However, there are segregated neighborhoods throughout the country that are of non-traditional Norwegian families. These families settled in Norway to get away from war, political persecution, or to seek a better life. Without being in their homeland, they still stay true to their original cultures. For example, Muslims found home to Grünerløkka. Walking through the area, I could tell that they don't believe in the policies that Norway has installed. Men go out and work and women take care of the children and they don't share roles. Norway needs to find a way to favor both traditional and non-traditional Norwegian cultures.
In my own experience, I was talking to my friend Espen about something that happened in high school and he made an example of a sexist comment. I didn't think anything of it but, he replied with "see any woman in Norway would have been mad that I just said that". Women there are very strong and they fight for what they believe in. They are the reason that Norway has been so successful in the fight for gender equality because they don't give up. In the end, I am so thankful for sticking it out and seeing the class till the end. I now see in so many ways how the USA can improve and how countries like Macedonia and Sri Lanka can initialize a movement. In my future career, I hope to work in sports and we all know that it is a male dominated field. I do think there will be challenging times when my gender does play role but, based on my experience in this class I will stand up for what I believe in because I know that my sex should never be a reason to hold me back.
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