1
00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:03,920
Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff

2
00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:06,120
Speaker 1: Works dot com and from the desk of Stuff You

3
00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:08,560
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore

4
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:10,760
Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick

5
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:17,840
Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome

6
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:22,239
Speaker 1: to the podcast. It's October twenty four. On this day

7
00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:27,440
Speaker 1: in about of the women in Iceland went on strike.

8
00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,840
Speaker 1: The strike was known as the Women's Day Off, and

9
00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,640
Speaker 1: it was originally proposed by a women's rights movement called

10
00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: the Red Stockings, but the idea of a strike seemed

11
00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,400
Speaker 1: too aggressive for some of the nation's women, which was

12
00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,159
Speaker 1: why it was reframed not as a strike but as

13
00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,360
Speaker 1: a day off. Once people started calling it the Women's

14
00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 1: Day Off, it got overwhelming support across the board, from

15
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,920
Speaker 1: homemakers to labor unions. Calling it a day off instead

16
00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:58,960
Speaker 1: of a strike also made it a little less likely

17
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,200
Speaker 1: that women would face retaliation from their employers if they

18
00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:06,240
Speaker 1: participated in it. The issues at hand in the Women's

19
00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,959
Speaker 1: Stay Off were number one, a huge pay disparity. Women

20
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,520
Speaker 1: were making about forty percent of what men did. It

21
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:17,280
Speaker 1: was also to emphasize the value of women's work, both

22
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,120
Speaker 1: within and outside of the home. Women participated in the

23
00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:23,960
Speaker 1: Women's Day off regardless of whether they had paying jobs

24
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,520
Speaker 1: or whether they were doing work outside of their own homes,

25
00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,479
Speaker 1: so women who had paying jobs didn't go into work

26
00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,560
Speaker 1: that day, and women who worked as wives, mothers, and

27
00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:36,560
Speaker 1: homemakers in their own homes didn't do the cooking and

28
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,559
Speaker 1: cleaning and childcare and other household support that they typically did.

29
00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,760
Speaker 1: The effects of this were huge businesses with a largely

30
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 1: female workforce had to close for the day. This included

31
00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,440
Speaker 1: some types of factories, retail stores, and a lot of banks.

32
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,440
Speaker 1: Although it's some of the bank's male supervisors did the

33
00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: work of their predominantly female tellers to keep the bank open. Reportedly,

34
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,360
Speaker 1: some of these tellers had a whole lot of errands

35
00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:04,760
Speaker 1: to do with the banks that day, so their bosses

36
00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:08,840
Speaker 1: were busy. Most of the newspaper type setters in Iceland

37
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,520
Speaker 1: were also women, so newspapers couldn't publish their daily issues

38
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,200
Speaker 1: that day. Some of them did their printing after midnight,

39
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,160
Speaker 1: after the strike was technically over. They did this with

40
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,040
Speaker 1: much shorter issues that were mostly about the strike. Some

41
00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,000
Speaker 1: of the businesses that had to close for the day

42
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 1: were also, of course, businesses that were closely associated with

43
00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:31,320
Speaker 1: mothers and their children, like daycares and schools. A lot

44
00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,360
Speaker 1: of men wound up taking their children to work that day,

45
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:36,520
Speaker 1: or they stayed home to take care of the children,

46
00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:39,680
Speaker 1: and stores sold out of a lot of easy to

47
00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:44,080
Speaker 1: prepare foods. Sausages were a big sellout item because they

48
00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,840
Speaker 1: were really popular foods among children, and they were also

49
00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,560
Speaker 1: really easy to cook. Also, as part of the women's

50
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,120
Speaker 1: stay off, there were rallies and demonstrations, including a massive

51
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,520
Speaker 1: gathering of about two d and fifty thousand women in

52
00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:00,920
Speaker 1: downtown square in reiki Vik. This was more than ten

53
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,840
Speaker 1: percent of the entire population of Iceland. The next year,

54
00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,120
Speaker 1: Iceland created the Gender Equality Council and passed the Gender

55
00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:13,080
Speaker 1: Equality Act, and then in nineteen eighty vigdis Finnbwadatta was

56
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:17,480
Speaker 1: elected President of Iceland. This made her Europe's first female

57
00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,359
Speaker 1: president and the first democratically elected female head of state

58
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:26,160
Speaker 1: in the world. She credited this strike with making it

59
00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:29,320
Speaker 1: possible to do it. She said, quote what happened that

60
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,920
Speaker 1: day was the first step for women's emancipation in Iceland.

61
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,360
Speaker 1: It completely paralyzed the country and opened the eyes of

62
00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,520
Speaker 1: many men. Her election as president also represented a shift

63
00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,800
Speaker 1: in Icelandic politics. Iceland had actually been one of the

64
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 1: first nations to give women the right to vote in

65
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,400
Speaker 1: national elections, but by nineteen seventy five, when the strike

66
00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,720
Speaker 1: took place, women had really fallen behind in terms of

67
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: actual representation in the government. There were far fewer women

68
00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,560
Speaker 1: serving in the Icelandic Parliament than in other countries where

69
00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:03,560
Speaker 1: women had gotten the vote a lot later. There are,

70
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,360
Speaker 1: of course still issues with gender equality in Iceland, including

71
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,320
Speaker 1: ongoing pay disparities, but Iceland has taken the top spot

72
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,320
Speaker 1: in the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Index every

73
00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,039
Speaker 1: year from two thousand nine to seventeen, which is the

74
00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,000
Speaker 1: most recent year that the report has been published. There

75
00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 1: have there been other demonstrations about these issues, including the

76
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:30,120
Speaker 1: pay gap. In twenty sixteen, Icelandic women held a walk

77
00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,239
Speaker 1: out and left their jobs at two thirty eight pm.

78
00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,160
Speaker 1: This was in recognition of estimates that they're paid fourteen

79
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,240
Speaker 1: to eighteen percent less than men, so in an eight

80
00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,080
Speaker 1: hour work day, they're effectively just not being paid after

81
00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:44,919
Speaker 1: two thirty eight. Thanks very much to eve's Jeff Cope

82
00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:46,960
Speaker 1: for her research work on today's episode, and thanks that

83
00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:49,919
Speaker 1: Try Harrison for her audio work on the show. You

84
00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,560
Speaker 1: can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on Apple podcasts,

85
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 1: Google podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcast, and

86
00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:58,760
Speaker 1: you can tune in tomorrow for a largely forgotten shipwreck

87
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,239
Speaker 1: from the of the pap