Women’s Long Fight for Parental Leave and Childcare
For decades, Icelandic women have fought for paid parental leave and accessible childcare — cornerstones of gender equality that allow parents to share both work and family life.
Compared to its Nordic neighbors, Iceland was slow to introduce parental leave. The earliest rights were found only in union contracts and rules for civil servants. The modern system, introduced in 2000, granted parents a total of nine months of paid leave — the result of tireless advocacy by the women’s movement and the labor movement alike. In 2019, this leave was extended to twelve months.
The first recorded call for a dedicated paternity leave came as early as 1975, at the “Loftleiðir Conference” organized during the UN International Women’s Year. From that point on, every major women’s organization in Iceland emphasized that equality in childcare meant giving fathers their own, non-transferable right to parental leave.
Today, the system grants six months to each parent, with six weeks transferable between them. In practice, women take an average of seven months, while men take about four — a gap that continues to reinforce inequality in income and career progression.
The demand for childcare is just as old. As far back as 1894, Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir — Iceland’s pioneering suffragist — proposed the creation of daytime childcare institutions for small children. Yet it took over a century before most Icelandic children gained the right to a preschool place at age two.
Throughout the 20th century, women’s organizations, including working women’s unions, the children’s welfare association Sumargjöf, and countless local women’s groups, opened nurseries, playgrounds, and preschools. But spaces were scarce, and for decades, childcare was viewed as a social service for those in need — single mothers, students, or low-income families — rather than as a universal right.
Childcare became a central issue of the Red Stocking Movement (Rauðsokkahreyfingin) in the 1970s, and later of the Women’s Slate and the Women’s List in the 1980s. When the Reykjavík List coalition came to power in 1994, it prioritized preschool access and a continuous school day, transforming the situation in the capital and laying the foundation for Iceland’s modern preschool system.
Still, challenges remain. Although parental leave now lasts twelve months, fewer than 10% of children secure a preschool spot by their first birthday, and more than half are over 18 months old before starting. The gap between parental leave and preschool is usually bridged by mothers, who are far more likely to reduce their working hours — with lasting consequences.
After childbirth, women’s total income drops by around 50%, while men’s stays the same. Ten years later, women’s earnings remain 35% lower than before having a child — while fathers’ real wages have, on average, increased.