The women’s day off 1975
“Women, meet at Laekjartorg Square at 2pm. Planning Committee, Women‘s Day off.“ The announcement read on the radio just before the lunchtime news on October 24, 1975, wasn’t loud or boisterous.
This modest encouragement was, however, the final push in one of the largest events held in Iceland in the 20th century.
The atmosphere was tense. Nothing was known for sure about women´s participation in this first women’s day off in history. Dozens of foreign press representatives waited patiently, along with the domestic press. An historic moment or a misguided attempt?
Shortly after noon women started streaming in to the square from all directions. They were of all ages and from every section of society. They held up a number of boards with slogans such as: Equality, progress, peace. More daycare centers. Real equal pay. Women’s Day Off – and then what?
By day’s end, over thirty thousand women had taken their place downtown. The largest rally in the history of Iceland was about to begin.
The women’s day off 2005
In 2005, another page was turned in the history of Icelandic women’s fight for equality. On October 24th almost fifty thousand women gathered in downtown Reykjavik and “let their voices be heard”.
Around one third of all women in the country participated in this largest outdoor rally in Icelandic history and demanded gender equality in action.
The year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the first Women’s Day Off in 1975, but despite decades of fighting limited headway had been made.
Pay inequality was still common. The gender pay gap ran was hugely favorable to men and they had a much easier access to positions of power in the labor market and politics.
A broad alliance was formed by the women’s movements to commemorate the occasion. A protest march and a rally were planned at Ingolfstorg Square on the Women’s Day Off.
A decision was made, that women would stop working at 2:08pm, at which point they would have earned their proportion of men’s pay for the day.
The march headed down from Hallgrimskirkja Church at 3pm. The slogan was “Women, let our voices be heard”. The participation exceeded the most optimistic expectations and the crowds had to spill over into the neighborhood in order to find their way to the rally at the square, where a program began at 4pm.
The events of the day were covered by media around the world, just as it had been thirty years earlier.
