Iceland, the spiritual homeland of women.
It has been ranked as the most gender-equal country in the world for 14 consecutive years.
It was also the first country to enshrine equal pay for men and women for equal work into law, and elected the world's first democratically elected female president.
From politics and economy to daily life, Iceland is one of the best places in the world for women to live.
But recently, it was in this women's utopia that a general strike of women, from prime ministers to civilians, broke out. They stopped working and took to the streets to call for more equality.
They are not satisfied, they are still fighting.
Icelandic woman, what are you fighting for?
You call it equality?
October 24, 2023, 9 a.m.
Nearly 100,000 Icelandic women left their jobs and left their homes and took to the streets.
They waved banners and slogans – "his patriarchy!" and "Equal rights!"
2023 Icelandic Women's Strike
When the crowd began to gather in the square in the center of the city, the exciting speech began.
Female speakers of different colors and ages stood in front of the stage one by one.
"Today we are standing here. Because we are human beings, part of this great tribe. ”
"We dare, we want, we can!
"We want to eliminate the gender injustices that women face every day in every way!"
The President of the Nurses Association made a statement
Speakers took the stage to cite the facts of gender injustice: the plight of migrant women and women with disabilities, undervalued female labor, gender-based violence and harassment......
"You call it equality?"
The voices from the audience poured in like a tide-
“No!”
"You call this equality?"
The strike was the largest women's strike in Iceland in nearly half a century.
Nearly 1/4 of Icelanders participated.
On this day, schools, shops and banks in Iceland are closed.
Medical facilities in the capital only provide emergency services.
Icelanders wake up and turn on the TV to see all they see as male news anchors reporting on the nationwide shutdown due to strikes, with traffic delays, school closures, and hotel rooms uncleaned......
Even the Prime Minister of Iceland said, "I don't go to work today because I want all the women in the cabinet to do the same." ”
The Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrin Jacobsdottir, is the second female Prime Minister in Iceland's history.
The Prime Minister of Iceland made a statement
On the day of the strike, she stressed in an interview that the fight for gender equality was too slow.
It's unbearably slow.
At the current rate, women around the world will have to wait 300 years to achieve gender equality.
"My dream is that we will achieve this goal (to achieve full gender equality) by 2030, but I know that it will take a lot of effort. ”
Iceland's first lady, author Eliza Reid, also came out in solidarity, saying she would not respond to emails because she was on strike.
Her husband, the current president of Iceland, issued a message in support: "Their activism for equality has changed Icelandic society for the better, and it continues today." ”
Worldwide, Iceland is a haven for gender equality.
But even so, not a single Icelandic woman thinks it's a utopia.
Women continue to face violence and harassment.
Women are still paid less than men for paid work, while taking on more unpaid work.
"When the first shift and the second shift end, the third shift begins. A concept that a lot of men don't even recognize!"
图源:businessinsider
The "third shift" is also a new focus of this strike.
The first shift was paid labor, and the second shift was housework and childcare, which is a double burden for women as we know it.
The "third shift", that is, the mental burden borne by women, can also be understood as emotional labor. For example, doing household chores, when, how, and to whom, these organizational and planned tasks are also usually performed by women.
For the women who stand side by side and speak out, there is a lot of room for improvement.
They've been fighting for it, too.
The day that changed history
Of course, gender equality in Iceland has not been the same since ancient times, it has been the result of generations of women.
In 1920, Icelandic women were given the right to vote and to vote.
Two years later, they elected Iceland's first female parliamentarian.
But in the decades that followed, the number of women parliamentarians remained low.
In 1975, there were only three women in parliament, or 5 per cent, while in the other Nordic countries the proportion was between 16 and 23 per cent.
Not only do Icelandic women have fewer job opportunities and are difficult to promote, earning less than 60 per cent of men.
It was on October 24 of that year that Icelandic women went on strike for the first time.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, 90 percent of the country's women left the office and walked out of their homes.
Answering the call for a "women's day off", they decided to prove the importance of women by going on strike.
In 1975, Icelandic women went on strike
Soon, the whole country was paralyzed.
There are no flight attendants, a large number of flights are canceled, there is no customer service, telephone service is not available, there are no female typists, newspapers are not delivered, there are no female teachers, children cannot attend classes, there is no wife, there is no one to cook at home, and sausages and hot dogs in the store are quickly sold out......
It is said that in the following days, the local newspaper published a large number of stories like this:
The first time a man washes dishes, the first time he takes his children to work, the first time he prepares dinner......
It was a day that changed history.
On this day, 45-year-old Vigdis, artistic director of the Icelandic Capital Theatre Company, and her female colleagues gave up the rehearsal of the show to join the crowd at the parade.
She took her mother and three-year-old daughter with her, and tens of thousands of women sang and listened to speeches together.
"There's a tremendous power to all of this, and all the women standing in the sun are so united in the square. ”
Five years later, the divorced single mother is locked in a fierce competition with three male candidates for the president of Iceland.
Vigdis, the female president of Iceland
Vigdis, who was also a breast cancer patient, humorously replied when a male opponent with a strong odds asked her how she could become president with just one breast: "Well, I'm not going to breastfeed the country." ”
In the end, Vigdis, who originally only wanted to prove that a woman could run, and did not think that she would win, unexpectedly stood out from the encirclement.
In 1980, Vigdes became the first female president in Iceland's history and the first democratically elected female head of state in the world.
In 1980, Vigdes was elected president
She was so popular that she won three more consecutive elections for a 16-year term, making her the longest-serving elected female head of state in the world.
Vigdes insisted that if it weren't for October 24, 1975, that sunny day, she would never have been president.
It was a day that changed the way people think about women forever.
The woman in the eyes of men, the women in the eyes of women, and the self in the eyes of women seem to be different.
Women and children who went on strike in 1975
A year after the strike, Iceland established the Gender Equality Commission and passed the Gender Equality Act, which prohibits gender discrimination in the workplace and in schools.
In the decades since, women have remained united in their fight for equality.
By October 24, 2023, this is already the seventh strike carried out by Icelandic women.
During the 16-year tenure of the first female president, Vigdes, Iceland has made leaps and bounds on the path to gender equality.
First, women's political participation has soared.
By 1999, more than one third of Icelandic parliamentarians were women.
In 2000, the Icelandic government passed the Nine-Month Parental Leave Act, which allows each spouse to take three months of paid maternity leave, plus three months of joint maternity leave, which can be assigned to whomever to take the leave.
Of course, more importantly, Vigdes has created a whole new female role model.
How influential is this example?
Iceland's current prime minister, Jacobs Sdottir, said that his six-year-old niece had asked her a question, "Can a man become president?"
Everything changed when women could do anything, be anyone.
In 2009, Iceland had its first female prime minister and the first female leader in the world to openly pursue homosexuality.
In 2013, the female Prime Minister of Iceland visited China with her wife
In 2010, same-sex marriage was legalized in Iceland. Icelandic striptease clubs were abolished.
In 2017, Iceland elected its second female prime minister.
In 2018, Iceland became the first country in the world to pass legislation requiring equal pay for men and women.
......
From Iceland to the world
To this day, the battle of this generation of Icelandic women has not stopped.
Their ideal equality has not yet been realized.
Now, they are trying to overcome what appears to be a "high status for women" but is actually a more insidious injustice.
For example, the superficial equal pay for men and women for equal work.
Iceland has achieved the highest level of equal pay for equal work in the world, but according to Statistics Iceland, the average income of Icelandic women in 2022 was 21% lower than that of men.
Moreover, equal pay for equal work only achieves relative equality for the same type of work.
In Iceland, it is still men who occupy more high-paid, managerial positions.
Source: Renren Video
On the other hand, even in Iceland, where gender equality is the highest, the clouds of gender-based violence have not dissipated.
A 2018 Lancet data on Icelandic women found that about one-third of them had experienced sexual harassment or gender-based violence at work.
Source: The Lancet
What's more, the fruits that women have obtained with great difficulty are not easy to maintain.
After the 2017 elections, the proportion of women in parliament in Iceland fell from nearly 50 per cent to less than 40 per cent.
It can be seen that if there are no generations of women to keep up with the pace and consistently stabilize the fruits of women's victory, it will be possible to reverse the car if they are not careful.
More importantly, there is gender equality education for children.
In Iceland, efforts are made to reconstruct children's perception of gender before gender stereotypes are formed, and to develop a healthy and balanced personality.
Source: Renren Video
From an early age, boys learn how to be more gregarious, compassionate and caring for others.
Girls, on the other hand, are trained to traditionally be masculine, such as bravery, adventure, and independence.
Young children, as human beings, are not stereotyped and stereotyped, so that they can better understand what gender equality and mutual respect are.
Obviously, such an education also requires the sustained and determined commitment of each generation.
Brave play for Icelandic girls, photo: Pink Letters
Icelandic women have overcome many obstacles to get here, but there are still dark clouds in front of them.
"You call this equality?" is their attitude.
Iceland is an ideal example of a woman-friendly country, and its tradition of strikes has always resonated with the waves of women around the world.
In 2016, Polish women went on a nationwide strike to protest the abortion ban.
In 2018, 5.3 million Spanish women took to the streets on strike to defend equal pay for men and women for equal work and to protest gender-based violence.
Spanish women knocked on the pot and went on a collective strike, source: Internet
According to the latest Global Gender Gap Report, the global gender equality process has come to a near standstill in recent years, and it will take 131 years to close the overall gender gap.
In 131, hope seems to be far away, so what then?
Perhaps we should follow the attitude of Icelandic women:
It's too slow.
Iceland has meant a possibility for the imagination of the female world, and it is a window to the ideal country.
And we also see that women around the world are forming a community of destiny and moving forward side by side.
Women in Ireland, in order to fight for their bodily autonomy, flew home to cast a precious vote to repeal the 35-year-old abortion ban.
Source: China Daily
When Iranian women rebelled against the hijab law, they received support from women across the country who cut off their long hair and burned their headscarves.
Iranian women burn headscarves, source: Internet
and the metoo movement, which began in 2017 and has become a global wave. Women stand together at any time against any form of sexual violence.
You see, every woman from the bottom up can see the power of a community with a shared future for women if they say and do more.
Her sister is backstage, and she will always see someone who feels powerless:
No matter how much you call for it, it is difficult to change anything, and women will still be discriminated against.
Source: Her sister's message area
But change has already taken place in a change in attitude.
There is still a lot of room for women to pry together.
Start with yourself, subvert the gender stereotypes of the people around you little by little, and then go further up and enter the top level of discourse and decision-making...... Everyday life is a struggle.
This is to fight for more income and rights for ourselves, and more so that more women can breathe freely.
Of course, I also know that a paradise for gender equality doesn't happen overnight, just as it took Icelandic women more than 100 years to get here.
Then you might as well start today and move forward towards the beautiful blueprint of women, day by day, year by year.
In 1975, Icelandic women hugged each other and sang loudly in the square:
Brave Women in Each Country
Let's use our hands
Do everything possible to build a new world
The kids get all our experiences
Take our solidarity as a reference
Let's witness it together
......
Even if someone wants to go backwards
Someone stood still
We will never accept it
But do I dare to want it
Yes, I dare, I can, I do.
Yes.
As a woman, I dare, I can, I do.
《Go girls》,图源:网易云音乐
Some references:
Women's Day Off website: https://kvennafri.is/en/
《巴伦周刊》，Vigdis Finnbogadottir, The World's First Elected Female President；
英国《卫报》，‘Power of the masses’: the day Iceland’s women went on strike and changed history；
英国《卫报》，Iceland PM joins crowd of 100,000 for full-day women’s strike
Triple Life Weekly, the first country for gender equality, Icelandic women's "road to revolution"