Icelandic Womens Strike

14% of Icelandic families have single mothers, while 2% have single fathers. 40% have both parents, while the remainder of families are childless. Among those not in formal employment, a 2010 survey found that 95% of those describing themselves as homemakers were women. The survey also found 1200 people on unpaid family leave, all of them women. Icelandic women first got the right to vote in parliamentary elections in 1915. When logged in, click your profile avatar in the top right-hand corner of the screen to visit your profile page. From there you can access your bookmarked content under the “Bookmarks” tab.

  • As a result, the United Nations designated the year 1975 to be a Women’s Year .
  • These extraordinary women have shaped the history and culture of Iceland and have certainly inspired others.
  • Ninety percent of women took part, including women in rural communities.
  • In 1908, Iceland elected four females to serve on the city council in Reykjavik.

When the fleet was in, 10,000 or more fishermen, workers and herring girls packed the streets and docks. By the time the boom ended in the 1960s, herring accounted for as much as 40 percent of Iceland’s exports; at least 20 percent of the country’s total exports were sourced in Siglufjörður. After kids grow up with equal time from parents, gender equality lessons don’t stop.

Her report from Reykjavik, On Assignment, airs at 10.40pm on Tuesday on ITV. History teaches us that progress doesn’t come about in a vacuum and that grassroots pressure plus investment in politics is a very powerful catalyst for change. Links to external Internet sites on Library of Congress Web pages do not constitute the Library’s endorsement of the content of their Web sites or of their policies or products. This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise.

She started her own party in 1994 called National Movement, which joined with the Social Democratic Party, Women’s Alliance and the People’s Alliance in 1999, and in 2000 merged to become the Social Democratic Alliance. On June 27, 2010 Iceland declared same-sex marriage legal, and Jóhanna and her partner Jónína Leósdóttir were officially married. In 1987 Icelandic fathers were given the right to share some of the mother’s six month family entitlement. This was enacted due to the passing of similar laws in Norway and Sweden.

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Women’s workshops for making woolen textiles have been found in Iceland. Textiles were used as a form of currency in medieval Iceland, and there were regulations as to what was legal tender in the oldest (11th-century) part of the Grágás laws. Both Norse men and Norse women colonised England, the Shetland and Orkney Islands, and Iceland during Viking Age migrations from Scandinavia. Norse women journeyed with men as explorers, and later as settlers in the Settlement of Iceland. A large number of women were abducted from Ireland and Great Britain as slaves – more than 60% of modern Icelandic women show Celtic DNA from these slave ancestors.

Research from 2006by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that only 20% of US women were resistance training two or more times per week, compared to 50% of men. Research suggests women in the U.S. may be reluctant to lift weights for a variety of reasons, including its association with men. As a young woman, seeing Thorisdottir’s CrossFit success encouraged Davidsdottir to get into the sport herself, she said. While there are of course plenty of strong women in the US, they aren’t celebrated in popular culture in the same way, according to Davidsdottir. In the 2021 CrossFit Games, Iceland, which has a population of 340,000 had three women finish in the top 20. CrossFit is a big sport in Iceland, and everyday people treat their daily workouts like the final of the CrossFit Games, CrossFit coach Karl Steadman previously said. The fitness culture is « very different » in Iceland compared to the US, Davidsdottir said, and being an athlete is thought of as « cool and aspirational. »

There were many speakers, including a housewife, two members of parliament, a representative of the women’s movement, and a female worker. The last speech of the day was by Aðalheiður Bjarnfreðsdóttir, who “represented Sókn, the trade union for the lowest-paid women in Iceland”. Employers prepared for the day without women by buying sweets, pencils, and paper to entertain the children who would be brought into work by their fathers. As a result, sausages, a popular meal, sold out in many stores that day. This referenced policy change would be the change in the law the following year, 1976, regarding gender discrimination in pay . Very nearly half of the population participated in the process .

On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Fortunately, according to Aas, Icelandic women are finding ways to resist limited ideas of beauty in their everyday lives, starting with the example they’re setting. « Many of us choose to be inspired by women who respect their bodies and have a happy balance with family, work, spirituality, and health, » she says. « It was a great personal reminder to talk about myself respectfully, especially around my own daughter. »

Finding the Hidden Women in Iceland’s History

Once-sleepy fjord towns began to fill up as more Icelandic men took to the sea, no longer as employees of the Norwegians but as captains and crew of locally owned boats. With the opening of Iceland’s first herring processing plant in Siglufjörður in 1911, the so-called herring boom was well underway. Please click the floating ‘edit’ button located at the bottom right of the page to add information or improve machine-translations for any entry.

Lawmakers took action, announcing on International Women’s Day that Iceland would require companies to prove they pay employees equal rates for equal work, or pay the fine. The campaign lasted only one day and all participants were a part of the strike for the entire day. Ninety percent of Icelandic women participated, whether they had paid work or did the un-paid work of caring for children and home.

The Archive was started by feminist activists and librarians in 1975, and was housed in the home of one of its founders, Anna Sigurðardóttir, until 1996, when it became a part of the National Library. From the start, the Archive had the support of Iceland’s women’s associations, and today the relationship between the Archive and women’s groups is still a central part of the Archive’s work. Members of parliament in 1924, including Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason, the first women elected to Icelandic parliament. Davidsdottir told Insider she found fitness culture for women to be very different in both countries. You know, the women’s shelter in Reykjavik was full and has been during the COVID pandemic.