{"id":19480,"date":"2023-10-24T06:51:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T11:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19480"},"modified":"2023-10-24T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T11:51:10","slug":"women-in-iceland-go-on-strike-for-a-day-to-protest-pay-gap-and-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19480","title":{"rendered":"Women in Iceland go on strike for a day to protest pay gap and violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tens of thousands of women across Iceland<\/a> \u2014 including the prime minister \u2014 are expected to participate in a one-day strike Tuesday in protest of the ongoing gender pay gap and gender-based violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cKvennafri,\u201d or \u201cWomen\u2019s Day Off,\u201d marks the seventh time that women in Iceland stopped working to call attention to gender inequality. It is expected to be the largest walkout by Icelandic women in almost 50 years, according to the strike\u2019s official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close to 90% of Iceland\u2019s female population went on strike on Oct. 24, 1975, to demand gender equality. The original \u201cKvennafri\u201d prompted Iceland\u2019s parliament to pass a law guaranteeing equal pay the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s demonstration is being planned by about 40 organizations<\/a>, including the Federation of the Public Workers Union in Iceland (BSRB), the country\u2019s largest association of public worker unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir told the Icelandic news site Iceland Monitor<\/a> that she will refuse to work on the strike day and expects other women in government to join her \u201cin solidarity with Icelandic women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Jakobsdottir said. \u201cWe are still tackling gender-based violence, which has been a priority for my government to tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers urge women and non-binary people in Iceland not to take on any paid or unpaid labor on Tuesday, including child care and household chores, to \u201cdemonstrate the importance of their contribution to society,\u201d the strike\u2019s\u2002website<\/a> notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men are encouraged to show their support by \u201ctaking on additional responsibilities\u201d at home and at work, to enable their partners and colleagues to join the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s demonstration, schools are expected to shorten their hours or close, as women make up the majority of teachers in Iceland. Landspitali hospital, Iceland\u2019s largest health care employer, said it would run at reduced services, according to the New York Times<\/a> and Iceland\u2019s national broadcaster RUV<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iceland has been ranked the best country in the world for women<\/a> by the World Economic Forum 14 years in a row. Despite Iceland\u2019s achievement, organizers said significant issues persist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talked about, Iceland is talked about, like it\u2019s an equality paradise,\u201d Freyja Steingrimsdottir, one of the strike organizers and communications director for BSRB, told the New York Times. \u201cBut an equality paradise should not have a 21% wage gap and 40% of women experiencing gender-based or sexual violence in their lifetime. That\u2019s not what women around the world are striving for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the World Economic Forum pegs the wage gap<\/a> between men and women in the country at 21%, other sources, including the OECD<\/a>, put the gap at closer to 10%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, a University of Iceland study<\/a> found that 40% of Icelandic women experience gender-based and sexual violence in their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gender wage gap in Iceland is wider than in some of its neighboring countries, including Belgium and Italy, the OECD reports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gap has not closed, in part, because of the highly segregated job market Icelandic women face: They are overrepresented in low-paid public service jobs, according to research\u2002<\/a>published by the European Parliament in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given its global reputation as a leader in gender equality, Steingrimsdottir told the Times that Iceland has a responsibility to \u201cmake sure we live up to those expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of women across Iceland \u2014 including the prime minister \u2014 are expected to participate in a one-day strike Tuesday in protest of the ongoing gender pay gap and gender-based violence.  The \u201cKvennafri,\u201d or \u201cWomen\u2019s Day Off,\u201d marks the seventh time that women in Iceland stopped working to call attention to gender inequality. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[3465,23641,23642,23640,3150,1305],"class_list":["post-19480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-gender","tag-gender-inequality","tag-iceland","tag-pay-gap","tag-strikes","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19482,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19480\/revisions\/19482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}