12 Fév 7 Laws That Show Why Iceland Ranks First for Gender Equality

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 . The creation of a new political party, the Women’s Alliance, which won seats in parliament in 1983, demonstrates attitude change . Even more dramatic evidence of attitude change is that Vigdis Finnbogadottir was elected the first female president of Iceland five years after the strike .

However, by 1975, there were only three parliamentarians (5% of all parliamentarians), and there had only been nine female parliamentarians in total. After the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike, more women were elected. A look at Iceland’s historic labor systems helps convey the tremendous significance of the herring era. Between 1490 and the late 1800s, poor, landless people in Iceland were subjected to vistarband, a law that obligated them to find work on farms and essentially live as indentured servants. Landowners were https://countrywaybridalboutique.com/scandinavian-women-features/dutch-women-features/ required to provide food and shelter, but only men were paid wages. Workers were not allowed to leave the farm without its owner’s permission. No ad may belittle any gender or go against the country’s http://thehappinessretreat.co.uk/the-spotlight-initiative-to-eliminate-violence-against-women-and-girls/ fierce mission to achieve gender equality.

• As well, some women could have been fired for going on strike but could not be denied a day off.
• After the law was brought in, more than 90% of fathers used their paternal leave.
• Women were also more successful in running for political office, with the proportion of women in parliament rising to a record 43%.
• Collections consist of Participedia entries that share common traits, such as association with a large-scale initiative, institution, or specific topic.

I did my master’s in medieval Icelandic history and literature, and it’s probably not a big surprise to anyone that women are mostly footnotes and supporting characters in medieval history. Business IcelandIceland is a small Arctic country with gorgeous hot springs, lush lands and harsh winters. When an entry is published for the first time, we machine-translate the Open Text fields into all of the other supported languages. From this point on, the Open Text fields exist as fully separate (i.e. “forked”) versions for each language, while the Fixed Data fields are synchronized between all languages. If you change a Fixed Data field while viewing the site in any language, that change will be seen on the entry page for all languages. However, if you change the Title, Brief Description or Narrative text, those changes will be saved to only the Open Text of the language in which you are writing.

What is so interesting to me is that the Icelandic parliament discussed women’s suffrage more than once in the 19th century and most parliamentarians supported it. However, all bills that contained women’s suffrage were vetoed by Danish authorities. Those bills also proposed changes in the relationship between countries as well. I was surprised at how progressive parliament was back about this topic.

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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 the way, and I very much want to be part of continuing that, » Davidsdottir said.

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And, you know, this is also an ongoing issue that we need to be tackling and need to be dealing with. But hopefully, we’re moving forward with that a little bit more. So it’ll be really interesting to follow what happens in that case. Iceland’s first women’s organization was founded in the countryside in 1869. It’s focus was to foster more unity and cooperation among women in the region. They also collected money to buy a knitting machine that all members could use. You might have heard of some of the women I’m featuring but there are others that you have probably never learned about.

All Things Iceland is the go-to resource to learn about Icelandic history, culture, language and nature from the view of an expat. Women that had jobs did not show up for work and those that were normally at home, did not do any housework or child rearing for the whole day. Men had to take their children to work as well as scramble to feed themselves and the kids. Because women were only allowed to get the most elementary education from the established institutions at the time, Icelandic women decided to create their own private schools between 1874 and 1879.

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.

Then, in 1907, the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association began as the first formal women’s organization to focus on political gender equality and “equal access to education” and the workplace. In 1908, Iceland elected four females to serve on the city council in Reykjavik. As of 2018, 88% of working-age women were employed, 65% of students attending university were female, and 41% of members of parliament were women. Nevertheless, women still earn about 14% less than men, though these statistics do not take into account the hours worked, over-time, and choices of employment. Iceland has the world’s highest proportion of women in the labour market, significant child care allocations for working women. It has gender neutral parental leave, with a quota for each parent, and a transferable part.

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Women had been all but absent from pre-crisis banking boards; after the crisis, they were appointed to the new boards, and two-thirds of the bank managers appointed after nationalization were female. Women were also more successful in running for political office, with the proportion of women in parliament rising to a record 43%. In 1987 Icelandic fathers were given the right to share some of the mother’s six month family entitlement.

An outpouring of women on to the streets was, by then, a well-trodden form of activism. In 1970, tens of thousands of women had protested on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In the UK, that same year, 20,000 women marched in Leeds against discriminatory wages. But what made Iceland’s day of protest on 24 October 1975 so effective was the number of women who participated. Teachers, nurses, office workers, housewives put down tools and didn’t go to work, provide childcare or even cook in their kitchens. Iceland is arguably one of the world’s most gender-equal countries. It is listed as number one in the 2016 best places to work by The Economist’s women index.