Iceland’s prime minister and women across the island nation are on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.
Iceland’s prime minister and women across the island nation are on strike to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence.
Unequal pay sure, but how the hell is a strike supposed to stop violence against women? That’s not an economic concept that can be impacted by withholding labor. It’s a fine goal I just don’t see how a strike helps it get accomplished.
It brings attention to the issue. Not everything is intended to have a direct impact on problems.
I really don’t feel like attention/awareness is the problem. People are very aware of various problems plaquing the world… I personally don’t need more awareness, what I want to see is actionable items.
People don’t create actionable items unless they’re confronted with the idea that they need to make them.
Many people, like yourself, are waiting for something “actionable” before they do anything. The problem is, everyone is waiting for someone else to do something and thus doing nothing themselves. That’s where visibility comes in. Clearly not enough is being done, so people need to get off their ass and do something, instead of waiting for someone else to do it for them.
What do you mean by that. Firstly, you don’t know me at all. Second, do you know what an actionable item is? Literally, what do you want ‘people like myself’ today, right now to do that is just going to fix everything? I’ll stand for ‘people like me’ and say, we’re ready to ‘get off our ass and do something’, but what EXACTLY is that going to be? If you’re going to get on your soap box and tell me and ‘people like me’ off, have a plan.
Because as far as I see, you’re just grand standing.
Yeah awareness is definitely needed for some issues but violence against women doesn’t seem like one of those issues. I’m pretty confident everyone is aware of it and no one is a fan except for the people doing it. I don’t think those kinds of people will care about a strike. If anything I’m guessing a woman in an abusive relationship is more likely to experience violence by participating in this than not.
If even PM herself can’t do shit, then nobody will do shit.
I think you might need to read A Modest Proposal.
The thing is, giving women the ability to extricate themselves from bad relationships where they explicitly have to rely on the income of someone else to take care of themselves and their offspring is a big reason why violence against women persists.
When we’re talking “violence against women” we don’t mean women randomly attacked in the street, more often than not, we mean women attacked by their partners, who are mostly men.
The impact of being able to financially extricate yourself from a violent partner is huge and is driven by economics. It’s literally why Lenin considered women an equal part of the Communist struggle. It’s why Russia under the USSR initially legalized abortion in 1920. This would unfortunately change when Stalin came to power, but at the outset, it was understood that women having economic independence was a huge part of allowing them to become equals to men in society, and allowing them to escape abusive men.
While A Modest Proposal shouldn’t be taken with any seriousness, it’s jokey demeanor makes very good points about the same ideas. There are all kinds of things you can do economically to incentivize reduced violence towards women.
The idea that higher pay wouldn’t have an impact on reducing violence towards women seems a bit short-sighted.
I appreciate the thoughtful response. That’s the way to disagree with someone without being a dick about it. Good comment.
Imagine you’re a wealthy CEO who funds politicians. Obviously you’re evil and the only thing you care about is money.
Suddenly you start making less money because people are upset about violence against women. The path to you making more money again is for the government to address this issue. So you use your considerable influence to make it happen.
Wealthy people are simple minded and easy to manipulate. Just make it more profitable to do what’s right and they will.