Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.09.2013, Blaðsíða 10

Continues over
Gylfi is charging the organisers
of Reykjavík's renowned Gay
Pride festival for being too openly
sexual for an all-ages crowd.
Gylfi cited Article 93 of the Child
Protection Law, which states that
festivals of a sexual nature must
prohibit children under the age of
18 from being present. Apparently
Jón Gnarr's donning of the women's
national costume was just too risqué
for Iceland's innocents. It must have
been the cloak.
But by now it is no secret that
Iceland is a pretty gay place. In fact,
it is among the top ten gayest places
in the world! The 2013 World Hap-
piness Report, published by the
United Nations, posits Iceland
as the ninth happiest place in
the world, amongst a Nordic-heavy
top-ten.
Maybe it's because we are such a
welcoming place: the number of
foreign citizens living in Iceland
has risen to 7%. We are religiously
tolerant: after a thirteen-year-
long application process, the
mosque in Sogam"ri has just re-
ceived approval for construction!
And we're all for equality: gays from
Iran and Afghanistan comprise
about half of the aforementioned
refugees seeking asylum in
Iceland. OR, maybe everybody here
is just high.
NEWS IN BRIEF
SEPTEMBER
Continued...
Iceland is often hailed as a beacon of equal-
ity in an otherwise patriarchal world. We have
elected several women into positions of power,
including Vigdís Finnbogadóttir as the first fe-
male president and Jóhanna Sigur!ardóttir as
the first openly lesbian prime minister, and in
the 2013 elections just under 40% of MPs were
female. Not only that, but The World Econom-
ic Forum’s 2012 Global Gender Gap Report has
repeatedly ranked Iceland as the most egali-
tarian country, citing women’s good health,
education and political empowerment.
However, Chair of the Centre for Gen-
der Equality Kristín Ásgeirsdóttir says
this ranking gives us a skewed picture of
reality, as women’s economic participa-
tion is lagging behind with a prevalent
gender-based wage gap. “The wage gap
is what lowers our otherwise good rat-
ing with the [aforementioned] report,
but it is comparable to other countries,”
Kristín said. “According to reports from
the EU, there is generally a 16% wage
difference in Europe. To address this,
each ministry, institution, company and
municipality needs to go through its fi-
nances with a fine comb.”
It seems most institutions have yet
to do so, as a recent study commissioned
by the Association of Academics (BHM)
showed that men have on average 8.4%
higher salaries than women in jobs that
require a university degree. Head of
BHM Gu!laug Kristjánsdóttir said in an
interview with RÚV that this wage gap
cannot be attributed to anything other
than the employee’s gender as all other
factors had been accounted for, includ-
ing working hours, education, age, and
responsibilities.
The problem is systemic
A gender studies assistant professor at
the University of Iceland, Gy!a Margrét
Pétursdóttir, said she believes the wage
gap exists for a number of reasons, chief
of which are society’s ideas about gender
roles.
“In my qualitative research, I’ve ex-
amined the ideas that men and women
have regarding wages and job expecta-
tions,” Gy!a said. “A large part of the
male identity seemed to revolve around
getting a high salary and basing one’s
self-worth on its numerical value. Wom-
en, on the other hand, seemed to be
more willing to justify lower wages with
other factors, such as job satisfaction.”
Although a 2003 survey commis-
sioned by the Centre for Women’s and
Gender Research (RIKK) revealed that
men and women request raises or pro-
motions as often, Gy!a said that similar
research has shown that women tend to
ask for lower raises than men. “When
third party negotiators are involved, they
generally ask for higher salaries for men
than they do for women. I feel this is the
root of this problem, that women’s work
is evaluated as being worth less than
men’s work,” she explained.
“Surveys have shown that the group
with the highest wages are often mar-
ried men who have children,” Gy!a said.
“Men get these wages because they are
supposed to be earning for their whole
families,” she said. “Women don’t get
the same status, wages or career mobil-
ity because society expects them to also
run the household.”
Following the economic collapse,
men and women’s wages became more
in line with each other, but only because
men’s wages had gone down, Gy!a ex-
plained, noting that the gap is increas-
ing again as Iceland recovers from the
recession. “The problem is systemic,”
she said, “and it affects both men and
women; women are not given the same
opportunities as men in the workplace,
and it is rarely socially acceptable for
men to take as active a part in their chil-
dren’s upbringing.”
Shifting responsibility
Gy!a agreed with Kristín that employ-
ers need to lead from the front, ensuring
equal opportunities and working condi-
tions for their employees, but they often
lack awareness of their social prejudices.
“I don’t want to suggest that any supervi-
sor means to discriminate between men
and women, but there are several ways in
which people are unconsciously biased
in favour of men, overlooking women’s
contributions,” she said. “There are
harmful ideas prevalent in our culture
that we do not see without donning ‘gen-
der glasses’ and analysing our assump-
tions.”
Wearing these gender glasses re-
quires individuals to keep their eyes
open for privilege, whether it is based
on class, gender, sex, or race. “By be-
ing aware of it, people can at least get
a chance to react to the privilege,” Gy!a
said. Despite employment law, which
prohibits companies from discriminat-
ing against applicants or employees be-
cause of gender, women have run into
the obstacle of not knowing what their
male co-workers are earning.
Gy!a pointed out that the new equal-
ity laws of 2008 offer a solution, as they
permit employees to disclose their sala-
ries to a third member. “It is the privi-
leged party’s responsibility to inform the
disadvantaged of the state of play, and
I entreat all men to do so,” Gy!a said.
“The struggle for gender equality has
often taken on the form of blaming the
victim, as if it is women’s fault for not
having the same opportunities as men.
If society tells you that you and your ac-
tions are worth less than a man’s, how
can you be expected to fight for equality?
We need to shift the responsibility onto
the privileged, to do their part in making
a fairer society.”
Being Best In The World
Ain’t Good Enough
Iceland’s gender-based wage gap increases with
the economic recovery
— Tómas Gabríel Benjamin
10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 15 — 2013
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Society | Inequality
RAX - Ragnar Axelsson
In jobs requiring a university degree, men are paid 8.4%
higher salaries than women after accounting for age, educa-
tion and responsibilities.