Tens of thousands of women in Iceland, including the prime minister, walked off the job to demand equal pay and protest violence against women, organizers said.
Iceland already tops a World Economic Forum ranking for gender equality, but organizers said the country needed to make even more progress and lead by example.
Tens of thousands of women gathered for a large demonstration in the afternoon at the main square of the capital Reykjavik, and protests were also planned in other towns around the country of 400,000 people.
In Reykjavik, where 75 percent of city employees are women, 59 daycare centres and preschools were closed and all city services were affected by the strike.
The other times, women walked off the job at a symbolic hour after which they were technically no longer earning a salary compared to male colleagues.
The average wage gap between men and women was 10.2 percent in 2021, according to Statistics Iceland.
