Shape Your Own Ideology: Valuable Career Advice From Icelandic Women Innovators

On 24 October 1975, Icelandic women did not go to their paid jobs nor did they do any housework or child-rearing at home.

It was decided that the women of Iceland would go on strike for one day in order to remind the people of Iceland how important women were to Icelandic society, and to bring attention to the low pay of women . This was the first time a women’s strike of nearly all the women of the country was used in Iceland . Grassroots activism at such a scale unsurprisingly had a significant material impact. https://thegirlcanwrite.net/hot-icelandic-women/ Within five years, the country had the world’s first democratically elected female president – Vigdis Finnbogadottir. Now in her 80s, this steely-eyed powerhouse tells me of https://www.microdosing.life/study-of-women-and-gender-dominican-university/ the impact that day of protest had on her own career trajectory. Iceland has received media attention for its work towards equality in the workplace, especially for its efforts to close the gender wage gap, but Iceland continues to have an unadjusted gender pay gap of 14% between men and women. Toward the beginning of the boom years, the herring girls had capitalized on their sudden and dramatic economic power.

  • In 1915, women over 40 were granted the right to vote, and in 1920, the country introduced suffrage for all citizens ages 18 and up.
  • The country’s first women’s rights organization formed in 1894 and collected signatures on voting rights petitions.
  • Today, observers often cite Iceland as a model of gender parity for other nations to follow.
  • When an entry is published for the first time, we machine-translate the Open Text fields into all of the other supported languages.
  • Ninety percent of Iceland’s female population participated in the strike.

On that day, 90 percent of the female population in Iceland didn’t show up for work, didn’t change a dirty diaper, didn’t pick up an iron, or step into the kitchen. The day has been referred to as the “Long Friday” by many men, because it was the first time they had to take care of their children and do household tasks like cleaning and cooking, and it was found to be a very long day. Businesses had to close because men had to stay home with their children since many facilities such as schools were closed due to the lack of workforce that day.

Enter the herring girls, who were referred to as “girls” no matter their age. They, too, came by the thousands from across Iceland, fulfilling a role so crucial that the industry couldn’t have succeeded without them. Iceland passed a law in 2010 requiring company boards to have a minimum of 40% of women or men. In 2021, women occupied about 42% of managerial roles and 40% of parliamentary positions in Iceland. Fortunately, in Iceland, there’s a ministry to complacency on gender equality. The ministry of gender equality, as in Harry Potter, is magic.

Women’s suffrage

The rest of the fields are either numbers, dates, or fixed options—we call these ‘Fixed Data’ fields. While viewing a case, method, or organization entry, click the red pen icon in the bottom right-hand corner to add to or amend the entry’s content. « I’m really thankful for our culture in Iceland for how open it is, how women are leading https://pepsagency.com/russian-women-are-leading-the-underground-protest-against-putins-war-europe/ the way, and I very much want to be part of continuing that, » Davidsdottir said.

The Role of Women in Research

Following this achievement, on June https://scps.tn/best-date-ideas-in-los-angeles-fun-romantic-spots-for-date-night/ 15, 1915, women older than 40 gained the right to vote in national elections. Before this, men could vote from 25 years of age and women only at 40 years old. In 1920, Iceland removed “the age barrier to voting eligibility for women” completely.

Ninety percent of Icelandic women participated, whether they had paid work or did the un-paid work of caring for children and home. Though there are plenty of examples of women’s history being uncovered in the U.S., there is a lot we can learn from our international colleagues . This is why groups like the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience are so important. If you are interested in more women’s history collaboration on an international scale, start with the International Federation for Public History and the International Federation for Research in Women’s History. And when it comes to collecting, researching, and sharing queer women’s history in Iceland, the work has just begun.

On 24, October 1975, Icelandic women went onstrikefor the day to “demonstrate the indispensable work of women forIceland’s economy and society” and to “protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices”. It was then publicized domestically as Women’s Day Off (Kvennafrídagurinn). Participants, led by women’s organizations, did not go to their paid jobs and did not do any housework or child-rearing for the whole day. Ninety percent of Iceland’s female population participated in the strike.

« It was a great personal reminder to talk about myself respectfully, especially around my own daughter. »

During her time as president she used her position to focus on youth and to support forestry, while promoting Icelandic language and culture. After her retirement as president in 1996, Vigdis went on to become « founding chair of the Council of Women World Leaders at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University ». Two years later, in 1998, she was appointed president of the Unesco World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. In the wake of the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis, there was a swing towards female leadership.

finding a wife

Thanks to mandatory quotas, almost half of board members of listed companies are now women, while 65% of Iceland’s university students and 41% of MPs are female. Because the pay is significant – 80% of salary up to a ceiling of £2,300 a month – and because it’s on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, 90% of Icelandic fathers take up their paternal leave. This piece of social engineering has had a profound impact on men as well as women. Not only do women return to work after giving birth faster than before, they return to their pre-childbirth working hours faster, too.