On the 24th of october in 1975, approximately 90% of Icelandic women struck for equality, not attending jobs or doing any domestic work. Iceland passed an equal pay law the following year, but the strike has been repeated on its anniversary several times since, such as in the years 2005, 2010, and 2016.

The strike was planned by "The Women's Congress", which had met on June 20th and 21st earlier that year. Among the reasons given for going on strike were pay inequality, lack of women in union leadership, and a general lack of recognition for the value and skill of domestic labor.

During the work stoppage, also known as "Women's Day Off", 25,000 people gathered in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital city, for a rally. There, women listened to speakers, sang, and talked to each other about what could be done to achieve gender equality in Iceland.

Women from many different backgrounds spoke, including a housewife, two members of parliament, and a worker. The last speech of the day was by Aðalheiður Bjarnfreðsdóttir, who "represented Sókn, the trade union for the lowest paid women in Iceland", according to The Guardian.

In 1976, the Icelandic government passed an equal pay law, and the country elected its first female President, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, five years later in 1980.

The 1975 Women's Strike also helped inspire the 2016 "Black Monday" anti-abortion ban protests in Poland, as well as the "International Women's Strike", single day work stoppages on March 8th, 2017 and 2018.

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  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    6 hours ago

    We can infer from the timelines that everyone in middle earth was stoned out of their minds at all times. Like Sauron will show up and The Wise will be like "damn we should look in to that" and four hundred years later Gandalf will go take a look but no one, including Sauron, will have done anything for four hundred years. Like if these people were playing a map game they'd all have an auto-clicker on the "pass turn" button while they were in the living room eating an entire large pizza and watching Cheechfarin and Chongriel movies.

    • fox [comrade/them]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      It took 17 years for Gandalf to research the One Ring because Gondor's archives aren't using the Dewey Decimal System. Took like 40 to build Orthanc because the orcs, while vicious fighters, are also unionized and extremely strict when it comes to code violations. Don't put your boiling oil next to the hot iron poker brazier, folks, that's a fire hazard.

      • HarryLime [any]
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Frodo likes like six months to get out of the Shire after Gandalf tells him about the ring. His first reaction is like "damn that sounds like a lot, I need like two months to just chill so I can take it all in," then he comes up with an overly-complicated plan to fool everyone that fools zero people.