Today, at 14.25, Icelandic women will be walking out of their workplaces. The reason for that precise timing: with the wage gap factored in, that is when women will have completed a full workday.
Some interesting factoids from the Fréttablaðið editorial today:
Women are 50% of the human race, but own one percent of the world’s assets. Women are estimated to work two-thirds of all working hours worldwide. For this they receive ten percent of all earned revenues.
According to Statistics Iceland, Icelandic women earn 66 percent of what their male counterparts earn.
Violence against women is a far more common reason for women’s illness than traffic accidents and malaria combined.
Some 800,000 people are estimated to be trafficked annually on a global scale, most of them for sexual slavery. Eight of every ten are girls and women, and about half are below the age of consent.
Statistically, one in three women in Iceland will experience serious sexual assault at some point in their lives.
At the end of 2009, 3.1 percent of Icelandic women had sought counselling from Stígamót — The Education and Counseling Center for Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Violence, since its foundation in 1989.
Nine out of ten board members of Icelandic companies are male.
According to a new report by the World Economic Forum, the gender gap is lowest in Iceland of all countries studied. However, that report also shows a great discrepancy between the labour participation of women — which in Iceland is among the highest in the world — and their economic participation, which has Iceland in 18th place.
According to a 2008 wage survey by the Union of Public Servants, a man in Iceland with an elementary school diploma can expect to earn a higher salary than a woman with a university degree.
A demonstration is planned today. It will start at Hallgrímskirkja at 3 pm and make its way down to Arnarhóll, where there will be a staged programme. It’s cold today and a storm warning is in effect, but from what I can tell, there are loads of people [NB not only women] attending. Meawhile, many workplaces are closing their doors at 2 pm in support of the initiative.
Áfram stelpur!
