Strikes are implemented by labour organizations to demand higher wages for certain professional groups, but we do not have to accept this limited view of labour. Women’s labour has, for centuries, been undervalued and ignored. In the office and the factory, their wages stay lower than male coworkers; in the home, years of domestic labour and child-rearing are considered as little more than maternal duty.

The 1975 Icelandic women’s strike helps us reimagine women’s labour as a commercial, economic, and social necessity. For one Friday women refused to go to work, participate in housework, or engage in child care. We too can collectively choose to withhold our traditional and nontraditional labour—not necessary for wages, but for recognition. Society runs on the backs of women, people of color, and other minorities. When it shuts down due to their absence, they stake their claim for inclusion in societal discourse.