Key Points
- Tens of thousands of women and non-binary people in Iceland are expected to go on a full-day strike on Tuesday.
- Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir said she planned to join the strike.
- Iceland is ranked number one in the world for gender equality, but many disparities between women and men persist.
Tens of thousands of Icelandic women, including the prime minister, are expected to strike from paid and unpaid jobs on Tuesday in a protest against gender inequality, according to labour unions.
Iceland is regarded as one of the world’s most progressive countries in terms of gender equality and has topped the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index 14 years in a row.
But in some industries and professions, women earn at least 20 per cent less than Icelandic men, according to Statistics Iceland.
Forty percent of Icelandic women experience gender-based and sexual violence in their lifetime, a University of Iceland study found.
“We’re seeking to bring attention to the fact that we’re called an equality paradise, but there are still gender disparities and urgent need for action,” said Freyja Steingrímsdóttir, a strike organiser and the communications director for the Icelandic Federation for Public Workers.
Under the slogan ‘Do you call this equality?’, Icelandic women and non-binary individuals will go on their first full-day strike in 48 years. In 1975, 90 per cent of Icelandic women stopped work to protest gender inequality.
“Female-led professions such healthcare services and childcare are still undervalued and much lower paid,” Steingrímsdóttir told Reuters.
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has told Icelandic media that she plans to join the strike and not come to work.
How close is Australia to gender equality?
Australia is ranked 26th in the world for gender equality, according to .
The federal government’s first , released in March this year, highlighted the unique challenges women and girls in Australia still face.
The total annual taxable income gap between men and women in Australia is 29.2 per cent, it found, “reflecting the impact of gender discrimination and that lower-paid occupations tend to be women-dominated”.
While men’s earnings remain the same in the first five years of parenthood, women’s fall by 55 per cent.
Women also still do most of the unpaid housework, even if they are the household’s main income earner – at 24.1 hours compared to 19.1 hours.
As well, twice as many women experience sexual harassment as men, while women aged over 55 are the fastest-growing group of people experiencing homelessness.
