40 Years Ago, Iceland’s Women Decided They Had Had Enough

Via Jezebel: On October 24, 1975, the women of Iceland decided they would stop woman-ing in a massive protest for the same rights as men. On that day, known as Women’s Day Off, 90 percent of the country’s women refused to go to work or do chores or care for their children, to call for the same rights as men. The country came to a screeching halt.

https://twitter.com/ingilizce4u/status/657500954682642432

“What happened that day was the first step for women’s emancipation in Iceland,” Vigdis Finnbogadottir said in an interview with the BBC. “It completely paralyzed the country and opened the eyes of many men.”

The BBC reports:

Banks factories and some shops had to close, as did schools and nurseries—leaving many fathers with no choice but to take their children to work. There were reports of men arming themselves with sweets and colouring pencils to entertain the crowds of overexcited children in their workplaces. Sausages—easy to cook and popular with children—were in such demand the shops sold out.

It was a baptism of fire for some fathers, which may explain the other name the day has been given—the Long Friday.

In Reykjavik, around 25,000 women (an impressive fraction of the country’s 220,000 residents) gathered to hear speeches, sing songs of protest, and be, above all, a united front.

“It was the real grassroots,” Elin Olafsdottir, who was 45 at the time, told The Guardian. “It was, in all seriousness, a quiet revolution.”

“There was a tremendous power in it all and a great feeling of solidarity and strength among all those women standing on the square in the sunshine,” Vigdis told the BBC.

And the protests had tremendous impact—just five years later, Vigdis became the country’s first female president, a position which she would hold for 16 years.

“Things went back to normal the next day, but with the knowledge that women are as well as men the pillars of society,” she recalled. “So many companies and institutions came to a halt and it showed the force and necessity of women—it completely changed the way of thinking.”

If we gave fathers the same nonsensical advice we give working mothers

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Photo: Dan Harrelson via Flickr Creative Commons

There is an endless amount of advice given to working mothers about “how to have it all” with ‘all’ meaning happy kid, successful careers, great hair, healthy diets, immaculate wardrobes, the perfect beach body, good girlfriends, a supportive husband and a pristine house.

But what if we applied the same type of inane language we use when discussing women in the workplace to men?

This parody Twitter account Manwhohasitall is generating some buzz at the moment for its genius lampooning of the expectations placed on working mothers by imagining if men were subject to the same.

Read some of the best tweets here »

Survey: Half Of Food Workers Go To Work Sick Because They Have To

Credit: Jens Karlsson/Flickr Creative Commons
Credit: Jens Karlsson/Flickr Creative Commons

Flu season is here. And when the flu strikes, the luckier victims may call in sick without getting punished or losing pay.

But many American workers, including those who handle our food, aren’t so fortunate.

Fifty-one percent of food workers — who do everything from grow and process food to cook and serve it — said they “always” or “frequently” go to work when they’re sick, according to the results of a survey released Monday. An additional 38 percent said they go to work sick “sometimes.”

That’s a practice that can have serious public health consequences. For instance, as The Salt reported last year, the vast majority of reported cases of norovirus — theleading cause of foodborne disease outbreaks and illnesses across the country — have been linked to infected food industry workers.

But it’s not as if these sick food workers are careless. Nine out of 10 workers polled in the new survey said they feel responsible for the safety and well-being of their customers. Yet about 45 percent said they go to work sick because they “can’t afford to lose pay.” And about 46 percent said they do it because they “don’t want to let co-workers down.”

Full story via National Public Radio »