Icelandic feminists. Destitution. Chanting train drivers.

 I had always thought of Iceland as a place of hot springs and volcanoes that send clouds of ash into the sky and disrupt air travel. I had not considered it a hotbed of feminism. But today the women of Iceland are going on strike to highlight the pay gap and rates of gender-based and sexual violence. It’s not the first time they have done this either. Back in 1975 90% of Iceland’s women stopped work in protest at gender inequality. 

Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, who later became part of Iceland’s first gender-equal government as climate minister, was there in Reykjavik as a young student 48 years ago.  She said it was a day that changed history. “From that day onwards, Iceland has been a model in this field of equality between men and women. At that point in time we didn’t realise it was being noticed outside of Iceland, but quite soon we had reporters and people coming from different corners of the world to ask us about it.”

Icelanders have an obligation, she says, “to live up to this picture that we projected out into the world in 1975”. While they have never stopped campaigning, and have continued to make progress, she wishes more had been made.

I have to confess that back in 1975 I was not at all aware of Iceland’s feminists and their activities. I think I was too busy being a union representative in the school where I was working and standing up in meetings and talking about all sorts of mostly feminist stuff. There you go! 

Here in the UK we have other struggles going on. According to this article more than a million children in the UK experienced destitution last year. Destitution is one of those old fashioned words we somehow associate with Dickens’ novels. 

“Destitution is defined as the inability to meet basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed, either because of a lack of clothing, heating, shelter or food, or because household income falls below a minimum level after housing costs – ranging from £95 a week for a single adult to £205 a week for a couple with two children.”

A quarter of the way through the 21st century families in the UK should not be destitute. But we’ve got foodbanks and offshoots like warmbanks, where people who can’t afford to heat their homes can go to keep warm, and babybanks, where new mothers can go to get free nappies and other essentials for their babies. Our society seems a little broken. 

I don’t want to get started on the London tube train driver who has been suspended for apparently leading a chant on his train where he sang out over the trains public address system “free, free” and the passengers responded “Palestine”. Not an appropriate use of public address system and yes, he should be dealt with by his employers but, as someone pointed out, it’s not really a matter for getting the police involved.

Oh, dear! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!