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Women and non-binary people in a general strike for gender equality in Iceland

13 points by runarberg 3y ago

gotoeleven 3y ago
It would be interesting to know if non binary people were paid more like their actual sex or more like their opposite sex.
- gigji 3y ago
  I expect they'd find that the men who identify as non-binary are paid more than the women who identify as non-binary.
meheleventyone 3y ago
For English speakers: https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-10-24-womens-strike-live-394844 https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-10-24-womens-strike-live-394... Estimates for the crowd downtown were 100k people which I think is something like 4x over people’s expectations earlier in the week. Not counting any other gathering elsewhere.
- akprasad 3y ago
  Iceland has a total population of just under 400,000 [1], so that's quite the turnout! [1]: https://www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/inhabitants/the-population-on-1-january-2023/ https://www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/inhabitants...
- akavi 3y ago
  Seems odd to have a strike with 33% of the population in a democracy. If that many people support the changes, couldn’t they just vote for them? I can’t imagine that fully 75% of the non-striking 66% would turn out to vote against whatever changes the strikers are proposing
  - meheleventyone 3y ago
    They do vote for them, as I understand things this strike is broadly because people do not think equality is progressing quickly enough, that the rate of violence and sexual violence against women is unacceptable (40%), support for non-binary and trans people and support for equality globally.
  - saevarom 3y ago
    It's not that simple. The political parties mostly support changes in this direction. Surely 33% of the population is not going to have the same views on the economy, taxes, welfare systems etc. even though they agree on this topic. Furthermore, Iceland has held the 1st position on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report for 14 consecutive years [1], so it's not like things are really bad compared to the rest of the world. This strike is primarily to draw attention to the fact that the rate of change has stalled, and that needs to change. [1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/in-full/benchmarking-gender-gaps-2023 https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-repor...
gnaritas99 3y ago
[dead]
megaman821 3y ago
Are these [fill-in-the-blank] rights campaigns all about awareness, or is there concrete laws supporters wanted enacted or changed? The gays rights movement was able to make a lot of progress by having a clear-cut case where marriage and its benefits where legal for mixed-sex couples and illegal for same-sex couples. They were being denied something that many others enjoyed. Do women in Iceland have a different pay-scale than men? Are traditionally male house-chores like yardwork paid, while house cleaning is not?
- runarberg 3y ago
  The pay scale is negotiated by a union via collective bargaining so the main issue is not that. Your last point rings true however and is also the organizer’s main complaint. And it is not for lack of fighting for better wages as majority women occupations such as nurses and teachers are striking like every 5 years in Iceland. The primary goal here is to get the uncorrected pay gap down to 0%, it is now around 10% in Iceland. Highly paid positions such as CEOs are almost exclusively held by men while woman majority occupations tend to be underfunded and are suffering from austerity. I think the demand is that majority women occupations will be valued the same as majority men occupations, both monetarily and societally. A secondary goal, according to the organizers, is sexual violence which is a major concern in Iceland. Quite often sexual crimes are not investigated by the police, and if they are the court system is lacking in punishing for these crimes. Finally they also want equality in the home (what they are calling the third shift) that child caring and house choirs would be equal responsibility among every adult member of the family. Recent polling in Iceland seems to suggest that women take a disproportionate responsibility of child caring and home choirs, as well as a larger hit over men to their professional when raising a child
  - Manuel_D 3y ago
    > The primary goal here is to get the uncorrected pay gap down to 0%, it is now around 10% in Iceland. For those unfamiliar with these terms, the uncorrected pay gap is just the raw difference between men's and women's pay. So men and women being paid perfectly equal in the same job, but women picking jobs with less pay results in an uncorrected pay gap despite equal pay for equal work. I'm not sure how this is going to happen unless A) the government severely restricts people's work options so that each field has 50/50 gender ratios, or B) deliberately unequal pay for equal work is introduced to counteract women's choices of employment (so paying a man less for doing equal work, to make up for the fact that women tend to prioritize work life balance and safety over salary).
hubco 3y ago
[flagged]
hdjjhhvvhga 3y ago
Their female prime minister also joined the strike.

13 points by runarberg 3y ago

It would be interesting to know if non binary people were paid more like their actual sex or more like their opposite sex.

gigji 3y ago
I expect they'd find that the men who identify as non-binary are paid more than the women who identify as non-binary.

meheleventyone 3y ago

For English speakers: https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-10-24-womens-strike-live-394844 https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-10-24-womens-strike-live-394... Estimates for the crowd downtown were 100k people which I think is something like 4x over people’s expectations earlier in the week. Not counting any other gathering elsewhere.

akprasad 3y ago
Iceland has a total population of just under 400,000 [1], so that's quite the turnout! [1]: https://www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/inhabitants/the-population-on-1-january-2023/ https://www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/inhabitants...
akavi 3y ago
Seems odd to have a strike with 33% of the population in a democracy. If that many people support the changes, couldn’t they just vote for them? I can’t imagine that fully 75% of the non-striking 66% would turn out to vote against whatever changes the strikers are proposing
- meheleventyone 3y ago
  They do vote for them, as I understand things this strike is broadly because people do not think equality is progressing quickly enough, that the rate of violence and sexual violence against women is unacceptable (40%), support for non-binary and trans people and support for equality globally.
- saevarom 3y ago
  It's not that simple. The political parties mostly support changes in this direction. Surely 33% of the population is not going to have the same views on the economy, taxes, welfare systems etc. even though they agree on this topic. Furthermore, Iceland has held the 1st position on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report for 14 consecutive years [1], so it's not like things are really bad compared to the rest of the world. This strike is primarily to draw attention to the fact that the rate of change has stalled, and that needs to change. [1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/in-full/benchmarking-gender-gaps-2023 https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-repor...

gnaritas99 3y ago

[dead]

megaman821 3y ago

Are these [fill-in-the-blank] rights campaigns all about awareness, or is there concrete laws supporters wanted enacted or changed? The gays rights movement was able to make a lot of progress by having a clear-cut case where marriage and its benefits where legal for mixed-sex couples and illegal for same-sex couples. They were being denied something that many others enjoyed. Do women in Iceland have a different pay-scale than men? Are traditionally male house-chores like yardwork paid, while house cleaning is not?

runarberg 3y ago
The pay scale is negotiated by a union via collective bargaining so the main issue is not that. Your last point rings true however and is also the organizer’s main complaint. And it is not for lack of fighting for better wages as majority women occupations such as nurses and teachers are striking like every 5 years in Iceland. The primary goal here is to get the uncorrected pay gap down to 0%, it is now around 10% in Iceland. Highly paid positions such as CEOs are almost exclusively held by men while woman majority occupations tend to be underfunded and are suffering from austerity. I think the demand is that majority women occupations will be valued the same as majority men occupations, both monetarily and societally. A secondary goal, according to the organizers, is sexual violence which is a major concern in Iceland. Quite often sexual crimes are not investigated by the police, and if they are the court system is lacking in punishing for these crimes. Finally they also want equality in the home (what they are calling the third shift) that child caring and house choirs would be equal responsibility among every adult member of the family. Recent polling in Iceland seems to suggest that women take a disproportionate responsibility of child caring and home choirs, as well as a larger hit over men to their professional when raising a child
- Manuel_D 3y ago
  > The primary goal here is to get the uncorrected pay gap down to 0%, it is now around 10% in Iceland. For those unfamiliar with these terms, the uncorrected pay gap is just the raw difference between men's and women's pay. So men and women being paid perfectly equal in the same job, but women picking jobs with less pay results in an uncorrected pay gap despite equal pay for equal work. I'm not sure how this is going to happen unless A) the government severely restricts people's work options so that each field has 50/50 gender ratios, or B) deliberately unequal pay for equal work is introduced to counteract women's choices of employment (so paying a man less for doing equal work, to make up for the fact that women tend to prioritize work life balance and safety over salary).

hubco 3y ago

[flagged]

hdjjhhvvhga 3y ago

Their female prime minister also joined the strike.