Women’s Professions Keep Society Running — at a Discount
For more than a century, women in Iceland’s major female-dominated professions have fought for equal pay. Yet the gender pay gap persists — rooted in a gender-segregated labor market and the systemic undervaluing of women’s work.
Most women in these professions are employed in the public sector — in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and social services for people with disabilities. Others work in low-wage jobs in the private sector, such as fish processing, cleaning, and food service. These are the very jobs that carry the heaviest workload, the most staff shortages, the highest turnover, and the most sickness-related absences. They are essential, demanding jobs that keep society running — yet they are still paid at a discount.
When women were first allowed to join the labor market, they were excluded from trade unions. In response, they founded their own unions for working women. The first known women’s strike in Iceland took place in 1907, when female dock workers in Hafnarfjörður went on strike — and won a wage increase.
Since then, countless women have laid down their tools in protest, achieving incremental victories but never a full correction that reflects the true value of their labor — nor equality with comparable male-dominated professions.
The struggle continues — a testament to the endurance and collective strength of the women whose labor quietly sustains every part of Icelandic society.