Women strike in Iceland
Icelandic workplaces were paralysed at 2:08 p.m. on Monday when the women of the country went on strike in protest at the lack of wage parity between men and women. They stopped at that moment because 64.15 per cent of the work day was over — and if they were men and earning the same pay for the same job, that’s when they would be able to leave work.
Thirty years ago, Icelandic women staged a similar protest, which brought Iceland to a standstill. About 50,000 thousand women — and men — took part in this week’s similar protest, which was probably the biggest protest in the history of Iceland.
The Icelandic parliament was closed because of the protest meetings about gender inequality and Hotel Nordica, where Nordic and Baltic politicians were gathered for the annual Session of the Nordic Council, also felt the effects of the women’s strike.
The president of the Nordic Council, Rannveig Gudmundsdóttir, stopped work on the preparations for the session at 2:08 p.m. to attend the protest in the centre of Reykjavik.
Gudmundsdóttir said Nordic countries still have a long way to go on the issue of equal pay for equal work.
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