Tens of thousands of women, including Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, walked off work in Iceland on Tuesday to demand equal pay and protest violence against women.
According to World Economic Forum (WEF) rankings, Iceland ranks first in the world for gender equality, but movement organizers emphasize the need for their country to go further and lead by example.
“We are fully aware that we have not achieved equality between men and women and that there is no reason to stop, even if the situation is better than elsewhere,” he told AFP Steinunn Rögnvaldsdóttir, one of the organizers of that day “Kvennafrí” (“Free Day for Women”).
This day has been organized six times in Iceland since 1975, but this is only the second time the strike has been observed throughout the day, she added.
In earlier times, women stopped working at a time of day when they no longer received wages compared to men.
According to the National Statistics Authority, the average gender pay gap in Iceland was 10.2% in 2021.
About 90% of women had participated in 1975 and “back then it was radical,” notes Ms. Rögnvaldsdóttir.
The Prime Minister announced that she would lead by example.
“She will not carry out her official duties (…) and the cabinet meeting scheduled for today has been postponed until tomorrow,” Ms Jakobsdóttir’s office told AFP.
“Gift for mother-in-law”
A large gathering began at 2 p.m. in Reykjavik, where the main square appeared crowded, according to images from Icelandic media. Meetings were planned in around twenty communities across the country.
The city of Reykjavik, where 75% of employees are women, announced that 59 daycare centers and kindergartens would close and all municipal services would operate slowly. The salaries of striking civil servants are paid.
The movement’s organizers expect men to take on the unpaid work that often falls to women on Tuesday.
“We expect husbands, fathers, brothers and uncles to take on responsibilities related to family and home, for example: preparing breakfast and Tupperware for lunch, remembering loved ones’ birthdays, buying a gift for mother-in-law, a dentist appointment agree.” for the child, etc.,” the strikers list on their website.
“We always have to be on guard when it comes to our rights,” Lína Petra Thórarinsdóttir, 45, tourism officer at Business Island, an agency that promotes the country, told AFP.
“In Iceland we are proud of what we have achieved and I am grateful to the women who came before us.”
She says she wants to continue until full equality between men and women is achieved at all levels.
The strikers also want to use this day to address the problems related to gender-based violence.
“We see that 40% of women have suffered or will suffer violence in their lives. This strike is about both pay equality and combating violence against women and non-binary people,” said Ms. Thórarinsdóttir.
The movement also promised to receive widespread support this Tuesday from women forced to work.
Fjóla Helgadóttir, 41, works as a nurse and says she cannot go on strike. “I would have liked to take part today (…), but since we work in an emergency service for children, we have to provide this service,” she told AFP, stressing that the cause was “extremely important.”