On 24 October 1975, Icelandic women did not go to their paid jobs nor did they do any housework or child-rearing at home.

However, by 1975, there were only three parliamentarians (5% of all parliamentarians), and there had only been nine female parliamentarians in total. After the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike, more women were elected. A look at Iceland’s historic labor systems helps convey the tremendous significance of the herring era. Between 1490 and the late 1800s, poor, landless people in Iceland were subjected to vistarband, a find more at https://thegirlcanwrite.net/icelandic-women/ law that obligated them to find work on farms and essentially live as indentured servants. Landowners were required to provide food and shelter, but only men were paid wages. Workers were not allowed to leave the farm without its owner’s permission. No ad may belittle any gender or go against the country’s fierce mission to achieve gender equality.

• In January 2021, Iceland extended the parental leave system to 12 months from 10 months.
• Today, on International Women’s Day, we would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to five empowering women in Iceland.
• Though herring fishing had long been practiced in Iceland’s waters, the country’s herring era only began in forcein 1903, when Norwegian fishing fleets showed up with massive drift nets capable of capturing huge caches of herring.
• A women’s movement was founded by Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir in 1894, and a women’s suffrage organisation was founded in 1907.

On that day, 90 percent of the female population in Iceland didn’t show up for work, didn’t change a dirty diaper, didn’t pick up an iron, or step into the kitchen. The day has been referred to as the “Long Friday” by many men, because it was the first time they had to take care of their children and do household tasks like cleaning https://lightningstream.000webhostapp.com/2022/11/loverwhirl-review-one-of-the-best-online-dating-site-with-asian-dates and cooking, and it was found to be a very long day. Businesses had to close because men had to stay home with their children since many facilities such as schools were closed due to the lack of workforce that day.

The Equal Status and Equal Rights irrespective of Gender Act mandates equal pay and equal terms of employment for the same jobs or jobs of equal value. The equal pay law requires companies to prove the payment of employees at equal rates for equal work or pay a $385 fine per day. Together these agencies research, advertise, advocate, and check laws on gender equality. Their goal is to create a legal, cultural, historical, social and psychosocial approach to gender equality. That means from early education through university, which is free, all sports, classes, and forms of schooling must include and practice gender equality.

Women in Iceland

On October 24, 1975, 90% of Icelandic Women went on strike for one day to remind the country of their importance. Research suggests women in the U.S. may be reluctant to lift weights for a variety of reasons, including its association with men. In the U.S., only 23.2% of adults do the recommended amount of aerobic and strength training exercise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is safe to say that one of the main reasons this policy was enacted was that women were well represented in Iceland’s parliament. Today we celebrate women worldwide and the tremendous—and hard-fought—impacts they have made in society, business, science, sports, arts, and politics. You know, the women’s shelter in Reykjavik was full and has been during the COVID pandemic.

FIFA Women’s World Cup

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.

Ninety percent of Icelandic women participated, whether they had paid work or did the un-paid work of caring for children and home. Though there are plenty of examples of women’s history being uncovered in the U.S., there is a lot we can learn from our international colleagues . This is why groups like the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience are so important. If you are interested https://examples.yourdictionary.com/catchy-headlines-examples.html in more women’s history collaboration on an international scale, start with the International Federation for Public History and the International Federation for Research in Women’s History. And when it comes to collecting, researching, and sharing queer women’s history in Iceland, the work has just begun.

On 24, October 1975, Icelandic women went onstrikefor the day to “demonstrate the indispensable work of women forIceland’s economy and society” and to “protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices”. It was then publicized domestically as Women’s Day Off (Kvennafrídagurinn). Participants, led by women’s organizations, did not go to their paid jobs and did not do any housework or child-rearing for the whole day. Ninety percent of Iceland’s female population participated in the strike.

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. 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.

Women had been all but absent from pre-crisis banking boards; after the crisis, they were appointed to the new boards, and two-thirds of the bank managers appointed after nationalization were female. Women were also more successful in running for political office, with the proportion of women in parliament rising to a record 43%. In 1987 Icelandic fathers were given the right to share some of the mother’s six month family entitlement.

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.