Women across Iceland, including the prime minister, go on strike for equal pay and no more violence

By EGILL BJARNASON
Associated Press

HUSAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Women across Iceland, including the prime minister, went on strike Tuesday to push for an end to unequal pay and gender-based violence. Schools and shops closed after organizers called on women and nonbinary people to refuse paid and unpaid work for 24 hours. The strike comes almost half a century after Iceland’s first women’s strike in 1975, when 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children. The following year, Iceland passed a law guaranteeing equal rights irrespective of gender. Iceland is now ranked the world’s most gender-equal country by the World Economic Forum, but a gender pay gap remains.