Our Predecessors
We have much to learn from the many strikes in the history of single woman and women’s movement. We’ve gathered a few of them, and we hope to hear more of your stories from around the world.
Looking back, we recall one of our earliest ancestors in resistance: Lysistrata, imagined by Aristophanes in 411 BCE,* who hurled a radical ARKETA!—ENOUGH!—at the men of Athens and Sparta.
»We are done with war! We women will withhold sex until you make peace.«
The women went on strike for an end to violence and destruction. We might also read the political, social, and symbolic refusal of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, as a kind of strike. Her protest—against the denial of her rights and the dominant political order—can be seen as an act of powerful dissent.
Or Nigeria in 1929, where women confronted British colonial rule with blockades of government buildings, sit-ins, and mocking songs in protest against the planned taxation of women.
But of course we draw inspiration from the present —like the 5 million powerful Spanish women who took the streets in 2018 with a bold declaration:
»Without us, nothing works!«
Or from one of the largest feminist demonstrations in Chilean history, when – in 2019 – more than one million women in Santiago and many more all over the country were demanding:
»Economic justice, recognition of legal abortion and an end to gender based violence.«
*BCE = before the common aera
Ina Wudtke: Fasia
