Iceland’s first full-day women’s strike in 48 years aims to close pay gap – Europe live | World news

Iceland’s first full-day women’s strike in 48 years aims to close pay gap

Miranda Bryant

Tens of thousands of women and non-binary people across Iceland, including the prime minister, are expected to stop work – paid and unpaid – today in the first strike of its kind in nearly half a century.

Organisers hope the women’s strike – whose confirmed participants include fishing industry workers, teachers, nurses and the PM, Katrín Jakobsdóttir – will bring society to a standstill to draw attention to the country’s ongoing gender pay gap and widespread gender-based and sexual violence.

Despite being considered a global leader on gender equality, topping the 2023 World Economic Forum’s global gender gap rankings for the 14th consecutive year, in some professions Icelandic women are still paid 21% less than men, and more than 40% of women have experienced gender-based or sexual violence.

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