Women in Iceland are going on strike Today to highlight the importance of gender pay equality.
Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir announced that she will take part in Tuesday’s strike in order to demonstrate her rejection of wage discrimination between men and women.
The slogan of Tuesday’s strike is “Do you call this equality?” stressing the dissatisfaction of Icelandic women of gender inequality.
Iceland’s Prime Minister announced that she would participate, telling the Iceland Monitor that she would not call a cabinet meeting and called on female cabinet members to strike.
She said: “I am first and foremost in this to show solidarity with Icelandic women. As you know, we have not yet reached our goals of full gender equality, and we are still tackling the gender-based wage gap, which is unacceptable in 2023.”
She added: “We are still tackling gender-based violence, which has been a priority for my government to tackle.”
Meanwhile, organizers called on pausing all work on Tuesday, including home tasks and childcare, according to the New York Times.
Women in Iceland wanted to be valued in female-dominated professions as they represent most teachers in the educational system, including 94% of kindergarten teachers.
Around 80% of workers at the National University Hospital of Iceland, the biggest in the country, are women as well.
1975 women Strike
Most Notably, it wasn’t the first strike for women in Iceland as they went on strike on 1975, in which women refused to work.
About 90% went for the 1975 strike and they urged the parliament to set up a law stipulating equal pay.
They refused to cook or do any usual tasks to announce their rejection of gender inequality.
Iceland’s achievements in women’s sector
Iceland has been ranked at the top of the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index for 14 years in a row.
Iceland was the first country in the world to elect a female president, and it became the first country to enforce equal pay in 2018.
Iceland’s women were among the third country to get the right to vote in 1915, after only New Zealand and Finland.
Comments 2