The Nordic nation of Iceland was almost completely shut on Tuesday as thousands of women went on strike to end unequal pay and gender-based violence. Among them was a surprising participant - the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir.
All institutions, from schools, shops, banks and swimming pools, were shut as trade unions organised the strike and called on women and non-binary people to refuse paid and unpaid work, including chores. All-male news teams also announced shutdowns across Iceland, causing delays in public transport, understaffed hospitals and unclean hotel rooms.
PM Jakobsdóttir said she would stay home as part of the strike — “kvennaverkfall” (Women's Day Off) in Icelandic — and expected other women in her Cabinet would do the same. The strike aimed to raise awareness about systemic wage discrimination and gender-based violence against women.
Female employees who make up two-thirds of staff in the Icelandic PM’s office have all participated in the strike and did not come into work on Tuesday, CNN reported quoting Jakobsdottir's spokesperson.
Last week, the Iceland PM acknowledged that the fight for gender equality was going too slowly. “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. We are still tackling gender-based violence, which has been a priority for my government to tackle,” Jakobsdóttir said in an interview.
Equal rights in Iceland
Interestingly, Iceland, a rugged island of around 380,000 people just below the Arctic Circle, has been ranked as the world's most gender-equal country 14 years in a row by the World Economic Forum, which measures pay, education, health care and other factors.
However, it has not reached full equality, as exemplified by the gender pay gap in Iceland. Tuesday's strike is considered as the biggest since Iceland's first such event on October 24, 1975, when 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to voice anger at discrimination in the workplace.
In 1976, Iceland passed a law guaranteeing equal rights irrespective of gender. Since then there have been several partial-day strikes, most recently in 2018, with women walking off the job in the early afternoon, symbolising the time of day when women, on average, stop earning compared to men. Tuesday's event was the seventh strike.
Many women have made great strides in terms of representation in the workforce and governance through the nationwide strikes held on October 24. However, after 48 years, the issues of the pay gap and gender-based violence have persisted in the country, with close to half the women in the workplace experiencing violence.
Meanwhile, Iceland's schools and the health system, which have female-dominated workforces, said they would be heavily affected. Gatherings on Tuesday were held across Iceland, the largest in Reykjavik, where much of the capital's centre was closed to traffic and tens of thousands gathered on the grassy Arnarholl hill for a rally.
Speakers listed grim facts about economic inequality and sexual violence in Iceland, ending by asking, “You call that equality?” The crowd thundered back: “No!”
While women in Iceland have pushed or broken the glass ceiling to top jobs — from bishop to leaders of the national wrestling association — the lowest-paying jobs, such as cleaning and child care, are still predominantly done by women. The work is also heavily dependent on immigrants.
Iceland's 1975 strike inspired similar protests in other countries including Poland, where women boycotted jobs and classes in 2016 to protest a proposed abortion ban. In Spain, women staged a 24-hour strike in 2018 on March 8, International Women's Day, under the theme “If we stop, the world stops".
(with AP inputs)
