The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years on

Every national leadership position in Iceland – including president, prime minister, bishop and police chief – is now held by a woman, but there’s still “work to be done”, said President Halla Tómasdóttir.

She spoke as Icelanders went on strike last week to mark the 50th anniversary of the “Kvennafrí” (“women’s day off”), which drew attention to how essential women’s labour was to Icelandic society and how undervalued it was.

‘Sweeping change’

Before the historic strike, women’s work was “valued less than men’s”, said The i Paper – women earned about 40% less than men. On 24 October 1975, 90% of Iceland’s women stopped work in protest at this inequality and 25,000 gathered in the centre of Reykjavík.

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The women demanded equality, equal pay and recognition of their contributions to society. The strike was felt both in paid jobs and unpaid labour like childcare and housework. It paralysed the country, with schools, shops and offices closing.

It worked: the action led to “sweeping change” in Iceland, said The Guardian. The world’s first female elected president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, took office five years later.

Women have repeated the strike on several occasions, including in 1985, 2005, 2010, 2016, 2018 and 2023. They highlighted persistent gender pay gaps and issues like gender-based violence.

The strikes are widely seen as pioneering moments in the global feminist movement and Iceland is the only country to have closed the gender gap by more than 90%, according to the World Economic Forum.

‘Still no paradise’

The strikes helped make Iceland one of the world’s leaders in women’s rights. The nation is now “powered by two sustainable energies: geothermal power and girl power”, said Tómasdóttir.

But women in Iceland have warned that the country is still “no paradise”, said The i Paper. The pay gap in Iceland has grown in the past two years and the labour market “remains highly gender-segregated”; women are still doing most of the unpaid care and housework; and more than 40% of women have suffered gender-based or sexual violence.

So women “must also be alert to the backlash we see today, with the rise of populist and extremist right-wing forces,” said Unnur Agustsdottir, who was 20 when the first strike took place. The rights that women have won in Iceland have been “achieved” through “hard struggle” and “must be defended”.