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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  • GeorgeZBush [he/him]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Númenor. This then is one choice before you. before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.

    Saruman was a Democrat?

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      1 hour ago

      In a wayyy. Unlike the previous Big Bad, Morgoth who was a chaos god, Sauron was evil cause he was obsessed with order and structure, making it kinda weird he was Morgoth's #2/3 guy. Morgoth was a servant of Aule, the Hesphaetus of middle earth essentailly who also crested the Dwarves in his own little innocent rebellion against God that God ended out kinda liking and had been always big into crafting and industry and machinery and having that sort of mechanical type of control. Morgoth wanted to destroy the world, Sauron wanted to rule it and shape it as he saw best.

    • buckykat [none/use name]
      ·
      1 hour ago

      I saw an interesting argument recently that Saruman was a bazinga. Actually, the quote is "one of the characteristic vices of modernity, though we still have no name for it--a kind of restless ingenuity, skill without purpose, bulldozing for the sake of change" but we now do have a word for that vice and it's bazinga.

      • GeorgeZBush [he/him]
        ·
        44 minutes ago

        the soyjak pointing meme and it's saruman pointing at an uruk-hai