This referenced policy change would be the change in the law the following year, 1976, regarding gender discrimination in pay . Very nearly half of the population participated in the process . The creation of a new political party, the Women’s Alliance, which won seats in parliament in 1983, demonstrates attitude change . Even more dramatic evidence of attitude change is that Vigdis Finnbogadottir was elected the first female president of Iceland five years after the strike .
It was decided that the women of Iceland would go on strike for one day in order to remind the people of Iceland how important women were to Icelandic society, and to bring attention to the low pay of women . This was the first time a women’s strike of nearly all the women of the country was used in Iceland . Grassroots activism at such a scale unsurprisingly had a significant material impact. Within five years, the country had the world’s first democratically elected female president – Vigdis Finnbogadottir. Now in her 80s, this steely-eyed powerhouse tells me of the impact that day of protest had on her own career trajectory. Iceland has received media attention for its work towards equality in the workplace, especially for its efforts to close the gender wage gap, but Iceland continues to have an unadjusted gender pay gap of 14% between men and women. Toward the beginning of the boom years, the herring girls had capitalized on their sudden and dramatic economic power.
- The goal was to have as many Icelandic women as possible participate; approximately 99,000 women participated, which was 90% of half of the population .
- As well, some women could have been fired for going on strike but could not be denied a day off.
- After the law was brought in, more than 90% of fathers used their paternal leave.
- Women were also more successful in running for political office, with the proportion of women in parliament rising to a record 43%.
- Collections consist of Participedia entries that share common traits, such as association with a large-scale initiative, institution, or specific topic.
- The women’s absence from the workplace and from the home for the day was a very effective method to bring awareness to all that women did .
I did my master’s in medieval Icelandic history and literature, and it’s probably not a big surprise to anyone that women are mostly footnotes and supporting characters in medieval history. Business IcelandIceland is a small Arctic country with gorgeous hot springs, lush lands and harsh winters. When an entry is published for the first time, we machine-translate the Open Text fields into all of the other supported languages. From this point on, the Open Text fields exist as fully separate (i.e. “forked”) versions for each language, while the Fixed Data fields are synchronized between all languages. If you change a Fixed Data field while viewing the site in any language, that change will be seen on the entry page for all languages. However, if you change the Title, Brief Description or Narrative text, those changes will be saved to only the Open Text of the language in which you are writing.
In 2009, Iceland became the first country to completely close the gender gap in education https://bumble.com/ and health. And in 2016, Iceland was 87% of the way to closing the gender gap in all sectors.
Women’s suffrage
The rest of the fields are either numbers, dates, or fixed options—we call these ‘Fixed Data’ fields. While viewing a case, method, https://chicagoreader.com/reader-partners/best-dating-sites-for-real-relationships/ or organization entry, click the red pen icon in the bottom right-hand corner to add to or amend the entry’s content. «I’m really thankful for our culture in Iceland for how open it is, how women are leading the way, and I very much want to be part of continuing that,» Davidsdottir said.
The Role of Women in Research
Women were in formal work for an average of 35 hours a week, compared to 44 hours for men. In 2008, 65% of women working were doing so full-time, compared to 90% of men. Many schoolteachers were women, so schools closed or nearly so. The walkout disrupted the telephone service, and halted the printing of newspapers, as the typesetters were all women. Daycares were mostly closed, because the daycare workers were women, so men had to take their children to work. Easy-to-cook meals ran out in many stores, as did sweets and items to distract children. The strike continued until midnight, when women returned to work.
The strike was orchestrated to raise awareness of the important contributions of women in Icelandic society, and additionally, it spurred people to action . The women’s absence from the workplace and from the home for the day was a very effective method to bring awareness to all that women did . The following year, a law banning wage discrimination based upon gender was passed . Five years after the strike, Iceland’s first female president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, was elected; in 1983, the Women’s Alliance, a new political party, won seats in the parliamentary election .
The Daughters of Reykjavik are a feminist rap collective who rap about gender issues. For centuries, this seafaring nation’s women stayed at home as their husbands traversed the oceans.
Then, in 1907, the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association began as the first formal women’s organization to focus on political gender equality and “equal access to education” and the workplace. In 1908, Iceland elected four females to serve on the city council in Reykjavik. As of 2018, 88% of working-age women were employed, 65% of students attending university were female, and 41% of members of parliament were women. find more at https://thegirlcanwrite.net/icelandic-women/ Nevertheless, women still earn about 14% less than men, though these statistics do not take into account the hours worked, over-time, and choices of employment. Iceland has the world’s highest proportion of women in the labour market, significant child care allocations for working women. It has gender neutral parental leave, with a quota for each parent, and a transferable part.
Those women who worked outside of the home in Iceland made less than 60 percent of the wages that men made. Women were also often unable to get jobs because they did most, if not all, of the housework and child rearing. The goal of the strike was to protest the wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices by demonstrating the crucial roles of women in Icelandic society. Of course, this work of refocusing our historical awareness and filling in the archival gaps is not unique to Iceland.
An outpouring of women on to the streets was, by then, a well-trodden form of activism. In 1970, tens of thousands of women had protested on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In the UK, that same year, 20,000 women marched in Leeds against discriminatory wages. But what made Iceland’s day of protest on 24 October 1975 so effective was the number of women who participated. Teachers, nurses, office workers, housewives put down tools and didn’t go to work, provide childcare or even cook in their kitchens. Iceland is arguably one of the world’s most gender-equal countries. It is listed as number one in the 2016 best places to work by The Economist’s women index.
