WEBVTT - Why is Iceland's PM on strike? 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:03.400 My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:08.400 Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.680 that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.240 Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.159 Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.960 first peoples of these countries, both past and present. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.280 Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It is Wednesday, 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.079 the twenty fifth of October. I'm Billy fitz Simons. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:27.600 I'm Emma Gillespie. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.040 Today, tens of thousands of women and non binary people 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.000 in Iceland are on strike, calling for the gender pay 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.960 gap to close and an end to gender based violence. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.599 Iceland's Prime Minister and other ministers in Iceland's parliament are 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.800 among those who've stopped work for a full day now. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.360 Despite Iceland's standing in the global community as being a 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.960 leader in gender equity, the women who live there say 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.280 there's plenty of work still to be done. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.400 Well, Unparck the strike, what happened and everything you need 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.480 to know about Iceland's gender equity movement in the day dive. 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:02.840 But first, Emma, what's making headlines. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.520 Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi will be honored with an official 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.160 state dinner at the White House on Thursday morning, Australian time, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.039 as part of his diplomatic visit to Washington. Albanzi will 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.959 become the third Australian Prime Minister to receive a state 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.880 dinner in the US over the last twenty years, after 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.240 John Howard and Scott Morrison. The PM arrived in the 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.360 US Capitol on Sunday night for four days of meetings, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.560 where he had said the focus would be on the 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.280 orcust defense packed and climate action. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.080 The Federal government will find a three year trial aimed 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.160 at reducing the impacts of harmful social media messaging on 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.880 young men. It hopes to combat arise in gender stereotyping 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.320 spurred on by influential personalities like Andrew Tate. The trial 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:48.640 will focus on boys as young as five and seek 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.280 to encourage healthy relationships among men with their female counterparts, 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.200 as part of an ongoing push to end violence against 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:56.600 women and children. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.480 A collision involving two trains in Easton, Bangladesh, has killed 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.440 seventeen people. A freight train was believed to have collided 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:10.400 into a passenger train crushing two carriages. Several other passengers 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:11.120 were injured. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.720 And today's good news the Matildas are back on Australian 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.560 soil for the first time since the World Cup. They 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.560 will play three Olympic qualifying matches in Perth, with their 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.400 first against Iran on Thursday night. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:31.400 Tilli Time, Billy, I want to take you to Iceland today, 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.519 where women and non binary people started their work stoppage 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.720 yesterday in the name of gender equality. Forty eight years 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.720 after the first all day national women's strike. Protesters are 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.000 demanding that gender based violence be eliminated and that the 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.440 contribution of women and non binary people be acknowledged and 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:52.080 rewarded in Iceland. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.160 I'm excited to talk about this topic because when it 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.600 was pitched in yesterday's pitch meeting, it was so interesting 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.560 that the Prime Minister was part of this strike. But 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.919 before we get into it, Iceland doesn't get a whole 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.400 lot of time on this podcast. I can't remember the 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.519 last time Simon Zara spoke about it in one of 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.280 their deep dives. So Emma, before we look at the strike, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.640 can you just give us a quick reminder of anything 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:15.840 we need to know about Iceland? 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.560 Okay, yep, so rapid fire lesson on Iceland. It's a 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.120 European island in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.320 just south of the Arctic Circle. What I mean by 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.040 that is it's cold. It's a land of extremes really 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.400 so think you know, twenty four hours of sunshine in 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.600 the peak of summer and really long stretches of dark winters. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.680 It's a pretty small country. We're talking about a population 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.600 of less than four hundred thousand people. Its parliament is 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.240 forty eight percent women, and the Prime minister, another woman, 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.240 is from the left green movement. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:50.240 I feel like the thing that I do know about 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.080 Iceland is that it's quite progressive, which those stats seem 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.520 to match with. Have any strikes like this happened before? 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.080 So this strike is called the National Women's Strike, and 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.120 they've been happening since nineteen seventy five. That was the 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.720 first national women's strike, when ninety percent of female Icelandic 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.440 workers stopped work for gender equality, and the action became 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.360 known as the Women's Day Off. That strike actually led 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.880 to an equal pay law being passed in Iceland's parliament, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:23.159 so it's standing in the countries is quite respected. Twenty 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.400 five thousand women protested against income inequality in the eighties, 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.680 and then more recently there have been protests in the 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.240 form of women leaving work the minute they stopped getting paid. 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.919 So this was based off the gender pay gap and 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.039 to highlight that difference. So in two thousand and five, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.360 women walked off the job at two eight pm, and 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.039 that's happened every few years since as the gap has narrowed. 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.680 So the last one was in twenty eighteen. The gender 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.279 pay gup adjusted for working hours was sixteen percent in Iceland, 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.800 but the gender income gap is much higher. Women left 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.000 work in that protest at two point fifty five pm 0:04:59.200 --> 0:04:59.640 that year. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.040 So those timings of walking off the job at two 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.599 eight pm and then later walking off at two fifty 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.279 five is that based on business hours? 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.560 Yep, that's a really good question. So this protest was 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.200 based on the idea that men and women working nine 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.920 to five or like a kind of standard eight hour day, 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.200 that women only get paid until two fifty five pm. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.200 So for this protest to prove that point, that was 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.120 you know, when they finished their. 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.360 Day, okay, And so then from what you have said 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.280 about this week's action, it's more of a twenty four 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.240 hour strike. So how did women in Iceland participate in 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.560 this week's action? You know, what did the strike actually involve? 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:36.840 Yep, So, as you mentioned, this was a twenty four 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.040 hour strike and women in Iceland haven't taken action of 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.520 that extent in decades. So midnight to midnight, and it 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.080 was planned by about forty organizations in Iceland who came together, 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.880 including one of the country's biggest worker unions, and it 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.320 was all about women refusing labor of any kind for 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.159 the day, both paid and unpaid. Organizers said that the 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.919 timing of it boiled down to systemic wage discrimination that 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:06.440 they say still affects women in Iceland and gender based violence, 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.240 which it described as a pandemic that must be eradicated. 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.120 Organizers said, we cannot wait any longer for actions, and 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.760 that's how this year's strike came about. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.840 You said something just that that's interesting. You said that 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.600 there was a ban unpaid and unpaid work. I know, 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.320 something that often comes up in these discussions is the 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.839 idea of the household mental load and how that disproportionately 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.800 impacts women. So women doing more of the cleaning in 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.040 the house, doing much more of looking after kids, for example, 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.479 what do we know about the element of those protests. 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:40.960 I don't think I've heard about a strike in that 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:41.760 area before. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.599 Yeah, so this is a really interesting part of the 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.679 organized action. People participating were told not to go to work, 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.760 so their jobs, but they were also told to refuse 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:56.159 unpaid work, like you say, to avoid taking on expected 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:01.000 unpaid labor such as childcare, housework, the emotional labor of 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.200 delegating tasks, and strike organizers said for this one day, 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.640 we expect husbands, fathers, brothers, and uncles to take on 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:14.080 the responsibilities related to family and home, for example, preparing 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.360 breakfast and lunchboxes, remembering birthdays of relatives, buying a present 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.040 for your mother in law, making a dentist appointment for 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:21.760 your kid, etc. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.160 I'm sure there are a lot of people who are 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.560 listening who think that sounds pretty nice. What do we 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.000 know about the scale of this strike, how many people 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:31.880 are expected to take part. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.840 So Apart from the labor stoppages, women and non binary 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.280 people in Iceland also gathered all around the country to 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.600 demonstrate at rallies a few hours ago. The biggest gathering 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.880 was organized in the capital of Rekuvic, but in terms 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.000 of how widespread the participation was you kind of only 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.560 have to look at Iceland's government. This is a near 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.280 majority female parliament. They have a female Prime Minister, Katrine 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.880 yak Abstrata, and the PM said she'd be doing the strike. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.560 She said she expected many of her colleagues to do 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.080 the same. So when you've got, you know, one of 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.560 the most prominent people in the country telling you that 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.800 she endorses these protests, you've got to think that's a 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.760 good enough excuse for many women to join in themselves. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.080 As I said earlier when we were talking about a 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.920 really brief overview of Iceland, I had this perception, and 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:21.400 I feel like a lot of Australians would have this 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.400 perception that Iceland is quite a progressive place when it 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.680 comes to gender equality. I mean, you said before in 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.800 your overview that forty eight percent of its parliament is women. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.520 So is that not the case that it is quite 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.280 progressive when it comes to gender equality. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.920 Yeah, I mean absolutely. It does certainly have that global reputation, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.600 and that doesn't come from nothing. It's long been seen 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.920 as this country leading the charge when it comes to equality, 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.240 and that's reflected you know, the World Economic Forums Global 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.960 Gender Gap Index ranked Iceland as the best country in 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.280 the world for gender equality this year. That was for 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.400 the fourteenth time. But what has become clearer from these 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.760 strikes is that nomic disparities do still remain between men 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.040 and women in Iceland. You know, even the best place 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.600 for gender equity in the world still isn't one hundred 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:15.560 percent equal. In twenty eighteen, Iceland introduced laws requiring businesses 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.760 to prove that they were paying men and women equally, 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.080 so that has helped with understanding the scope of the issue. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.400 But the PM said Iceland hasn't reached its goals for 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.400 full gender equality, and she said we are still tackling 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.720 the gender based wage gap, which is unacceptable in twenty 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.120 twenty three, so what do we know about the wage 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:39.360 gap in Iceland? Then, interestingly, as you kind of pointed out, 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.240 one of the strike organizers and union leaders actually told 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.080 The Guardian that Iceland is talked about like it's an 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.880 equality paradise. But she said an equality paradise should not 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.520 have a twenty one percent wage gap and forty percent 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.559 of women experiencing gender based or sexual violence in their lifetime. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.840 Iceland's ranking as this global leader in gender equity, you know, 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.440 it's based on a combination of factors, so not just 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:10.120 the pay gap, not just wage equality, but also workforce participation, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.800 education rates, representation in parliament. It's number one on all 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:16.880 of those things, but that doesn't mean it's ranked highest 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.080 in every category. So, for example, it's fifth in the 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.800 world for wage equality for similar work. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.240 Just quickly, you're talking about this has made me interested. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:26.679 Do you know where Australia ranks? 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.679 Okay, I looked this up because I had a feeling. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.040 I'm often great minds. I'm often prepping thinking what would 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.280 Billy do? What would Billy say? And I wondered if 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.280 you would so, Billy, I'm happy or not that happy 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.120 to tell you we're a little bit further back on 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.800 that one at fifty third. Wow. But even though Iceland 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.800 is leading the pack on so many of these issues, 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.640 it did actually slip in a couple of categories in 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.160 the Global Gender Gap Report. Its rankings dropped in indexes 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:58.440 of economic participation and opportunity and educational attainment. So that's 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.320 how many women are going to school, what's their highest 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.040 education level. They all slipped between twenty twenty two and 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:06.040 twenty twenty three. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.520 Just going back to the strike this week? What did 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.640 men do whilst women were on strike? 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:15.200 So the National Women's Strike explicitly stated that men should 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.920 not strike with them on the twenty fourth of October. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.959 What they did say is that men should show their 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.080 support by taking on additional responsibilities, so including in the 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.679 home like childcare, and by picking up the slack at 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.400 work too to help their female and non binary colleagues 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.480 to be able to take the time to participate in 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.480 the strike. A lot of media and Iceland wrote that 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.560 they were expecting schools to close on Tuesday, or at 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.079 least some schools to close or be operating at reduced 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.199 capacity or shortened hours. Strike organizers said that since a 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.520 majority of the workers in those fields would be on strike, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.840 fathers would therefore have to make arrangements for the day. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.600 So to end, what are the next steps for the 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.000 women's movement in Iceland? 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.840 Government has launched this investigation in Iceland into how female 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:09.600 dominated professions are valued in comparison to fields traditionally dominated 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.120 by men. So, for example, there are sectors of education 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.360 and health in Iceland that are ninety percent dominated by 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.680 women who were paid less than men. Strike organizers were 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.160 also seeking higher wages for Iceland's population of immigrant women. 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.240 They make up around twenty two percent of the country's 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.400 labor markets. So we'll wait and see if there's any 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.240 movement there. And there will also be a presidential election 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.720 in Iceland next year, so we know. Iceland's representation of 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.160 women in parliament is among the highest in the world. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.560 The Prime Minister is its head of government. She is 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.719 a woman, but its head of state is a president 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.200 and right now that's Gundi Johanneson. He was incredibly popular 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.240 at the last election. But it'll be interesting to see 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.200 if any progress on these issues shifts anything in Iceland's 0:12:58.200 --> 0:12:59.359 political landscape. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.200 Interesting topic. It's not often you hear about the prime 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.120 minister of a country participating in a strike. So Emma, 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.440 thank you so much, thank you for having me, and 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.160 thank you so much for listening to The Daily Yours. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.520 If you want to help the Daily Ods grow and 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.600 get the word out there, if you could leave us 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.560 a review on Apple Podcasts, it would really help our 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.679 small team grow. Thank you so much and we will 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:22.480 be back tomorrow.