Iceland’s high minister joins hundreds of girls on strike | The Gentleman Report

Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Pictures

High Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, pictured in June, joined girls throughout Iceland hanging for equality on October 24, 2023.

The Gentleman Report
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Hundreds of girls throughout Iceland – together with the high minister – went on strike Tuesday as a part of a marketing campaign pushing for higher gender equality within the nation.

It marked the 7th time that girls in Iceland have long gone on strike within the identify of gender equality, marketing campaign organizers stated on their reliable web page. The primary strike happened on October 24, 1975.

The strike, referred to as the “Girls’s Day Off” or “Kvennafrí” in Icelandic, used to be arranged to boost consciousness concerning the “systemic” salary discrimination and gender-based violence confronted by way of girls in Iceland, consistent with organizers.

Some faculties and libraries within the Scandinavian nation didn’t open their doorways on Tuesday, consistent with Icelandic public carrier broadcaster RÚV. Just one financial institution department opened on all of the island, RÚV reported, caution readers that its personal protection have been decreased because of its feminine newshounds taking part within the strike. Scientific clinics within the capital house have been best treating emergencies throughout the strike, because of finish at nighttime native time (8 p.m. ET), consistent with RÚV.

Within the capital of Reykjavík, a crowd of hundreds of girls accumulated on Tuesday afternoon on Arnarhóll, a hill subsequent to town middle, consistent with RÚV.

One of the most strike’s maximum top profile members used to be the rustic’s high minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who “didn’t attend to her reliable tasks” on Tuesday, a spokesperson from her place of business informed The Gentleman Report.

Jakobsdóttir postponed a cupboard assembly in the beginning scheduled for Tuesday, the spokesperson stated, reiterating that she sought after to turn her cohesion with Icelandic girls.

Feminine staff who make up two thirds of body of workers within the Icelandic high minister’s place of business all participated within the strike and didn’t come into paintings on Tuesday, the spokesperson added.

Arni Torfason/AP

Hundreds of girls protest in Reykjavik, in Iceland, on Tuesday, as a part of a national strike to finish to unequal pay and gender-based violence.

All the way through an interview with the general public carrier broadcaster’s radio station on Tuesday, Jakobsdóttir stressed out that the combat for gender equality goes too slowly. “Having a look on the entire global, it would take 300 years to reach gender equality,” she stated.

“As , we’ve no longer but reached our objectives of complete gender equality and we’re nonetheless tackling the gender-based salary hole, which is unacceptable in 2023. We’re nonetheless tackling gender-based violence, which has been a concern for my govt to take on,” Jakobsdóttir additionally informed information website online Iceland Observe in an interview on Friday.

The strike used to be stated by way of govt departments on Tuesday, and used to be sponsored by way of the rustic’s biggest federation of public employees unions, the Federation of the Public Employees Union in Iceland (BSRB), the Icelandic Nurses’ Affiliation and the Icelandic Affiliation of Girls’s Associations, amongst others.

“Girls in Iceland are hanging as of late, for the seventh time because the well-known #womensdayoff in 1975,” Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson posted on X, previously referred to as Twitter, accompanied by way of a black and white picture of an enormous crowd. “Their activism for equality has modified Icelandic society for the easier and continues to take action as of late.”

Iceland’s Ministry of International Affairs stated in a tweet Tuesday: “As of late we repeat the development of the primary complete day girls’s strike since 1975, marking the day when 90% of Icelandic girls took the break day from each paintings and home tasks, resulting in pivotal exchange together with the sector’s first feminine elected president of a rustic.”

For 14 years in a row, Iceland has been ranked the most efficient country for gender equality by way of the International Financial Discussion board (WEP), which stated the rustic has closed 91.2% of the gender hole.

Strike organizers sought after to attract specific consideration to the plight of immigrant girls whose “precious” contribution to Icelandic society they are saying is “hardly stated or mirrored within the wages they obtain.”

Jakobsdóttir’s govt has prior to now dedicated to removing the gender pay hole by way of 2022.

Author: OpenAI