On 24 October 1975, Icelandic women went on

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

for the day to "demonstrate the indispensable work of women for

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

's economy and society" and to "protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices". It was publicized domestically as Women's Day Off (). 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. Iceland's parliament passed a law guaranteeing equal rights to women and men the following year.

History

Icelandic women who worked outside of the home before 1975 earned less than sixty percent of what men earned. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

announced that 1975 was going to be

International Women's Year International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established. History ...

. A representative from a women's group called the put forward the idea of a strike as one of the events in honor of it. The committee decided to call the strike a "day off" since they thought this term would be more pleasant and more effective in engaging the masses. Also, some women could have been fired for going on strike but could not be denied a day off. Women's organizations spread the word about the Day Off throughout the country. The Day Off event organizers got radio stations, television, and newspapers to run stories about gender-based discrimination and lower wages for women. The event garnered international attention.

Women's Day Off

On 24 October 1975, Icelandic women did not go to their paid jobs or do any housework or child-rearing at home. Ninety percent of women took part, including women in rural communities. Fish factories were closed since many of the factory workers were women. During the Day Off, 25,000 out of a population of 220,000 people in Iceland gathered in the centre of Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, for a rally. At the rally, women listened to speakers, sang, and talked to each other about what could be done to achieve gender equality in Iceland. There were many speakers, including a housewife, two parliament members, a women's movement representative, and a female worker. The last speech of the day was by Aðalheiður Bjarnfreðsdóttir, who "represented Sókn, the trade union for the lowest-paid women in Iceland". Employers prepared for the day without women by buying sweets, pencils, and paper to entertain the children brought into work by their fathers. As a result, sausages, a popular meal, sold out in many stores that day.

Aftermath

The Day Off had a lasting impact and became known colloquially as "the long Friday". Iceland's parliament passed a law guaranteeing equal rights the following year. The strike also paved the way for the election of

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (; born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996, the first woman to hold the position and the first in the world to be democratically elected president of ...

, the first democratically elected female president in the world five years later in 1980. Every ten years, on the anniversary of the Day Off, women stop work early. In 1975, the women strikers left work at 2:05 p.m., and in 2005 they left at 2:08 p.m., reflecting the amount of progress made in 30 years. Increasing the frequency of strikes, in 2010, they left work at 2:25 p.m. and in 2016 at 2:38 p.m., with many women taking part in the Viking Clap outside the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

Legacy

The 2016

Black Monday Black Monday refers to specific Mondays when undesirable or turbulent events have occurred. It has been used to designate massacres, military battles, and stock market crashes. Historic events *1209, Dublin – when a group of 500 recently arriv ...

in Poland was modelled on the 1975 Icelandic strike. The International Women's Strike, a global version inspired by the Icelandic strike, spread in 2017 and 2018. On 24 October 2023, the second all-day women's strike since 1975 took place to draw attention to the

gender pay gap The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are Employment, employed. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct measurements of the pay gap: non ...

and

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

. 100,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the strike, which culminated in a mass demonstration in Reykjavík. Among the participants was Iceland's prime minister

Katrín Jakobsdóttir Katrín Jakobsdóttir (; born 1 February 1976) is an Icelandic former politician who served as the prime minister of Iceland from December 2017 to April 2024 and was a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík North constituency from 2007 to 202 ...

, who set a goal of achieving "full gender equality" in the country by 2030. In 2024 a documentary about the events was released, directed by Pamela Hogan, with the title "The Day Iceland Stood Still".

References

External links