How to enforce gender equality? Iceland tests the waters
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir recalls the autumn afternoon when she, along with nearly every woman in Iceland, didn’t show up. To their jobs, to clean their homes, to care for their babies. It was a protest against low wages and undervalued work. It was 1975.
That is widely seen as the start of Icelandic women’s formidable march towards gender equality. Ninety percent of Iceland’s female population joined in, shutting down entire industries. Newspapers shrank that day, and some flights were canceled.
“Women showed their solidarity, that they are many, that they can be a real change factor,” says Ms. Gísladóttir, who was studying history at university at the time and went on to help found the first women’s
Still no gender paradisePay the women or pay a fine
