“The ideology developed extempore”: Influences, Ideas, and Activities of the Redstocking Movement in Iceland 1970–1982

This chapter analyses the main ideas, influences, and selected activities of the Icelandic Redstocking movement, active between 1970 and 1982. The Redstockings continued a struggle that had begun long before they arrived on the political scene, but they clearly made their mark and radicalised the debate. During the 12 years of activities, they went from being ideologically inclusive—using a rhetoric similar to the “we-are-all-human-beings” ideology of the Nordic gender-role debaters, towards a more stringent political analysis of women’s subordinate situation as integral to the capitalist social structure. The movement was, to begin with, more politically broad than its international equivalents, as it included both women and men and reflected the political spectrum from the left to the right (although leftists constituted a clear majority). The Redstockings’ consistent use of a human rights discourse is a distinguishing trait since it was not common among similar groups internationally. It was not until 1974 that an explicit turn towards socialist feminism was taken. The chapter focuses on the ways in which the national context affected and conditioned the expressions that the women’s liberation movement took in Iceland and its main actions and legacy.