Iceland PM Joins Women’s Strike Demanding End To Pay Parity, Gender-Based Violence

The main organizers of the strike, Iceland’s trade unions, urged women and nonbinary people to refuse all forms of work, paid or unpaid, including household chores, for the day. Approximately 90% of Iceland’s workforce are union members, reported AP.

Tuesday’s walkout, which lasts from midnight to midnight, is being billed as the biggest since Iceland’s first such event on October 24, 1975. During that historic day, 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to voice anger at discrimination in the workplace.

In 1976, Iceland passed a law guaranteeing equal rights irrespective of gender.

Since then there have been several partial-day strikes, most recently in 2018, with women walking off the job in the early afternoon, symbolizing the time of day when women, on average, stop earning compared to men.