Sometimes it’s worth considering stealing a page from someone else’s playbook. And Iceland this week should give every woman in Australia an idea that could change modern history.

Just imagine, if we all went on strike, downing tools for 24 hours and abandoning our paid work for the day.

Imagine if we did the same with the unpaid household duties and volunteer work we do, and even dispensed with the idea of returning the overdue library books.

That’s what happened in Iceland again this week, almost 45 years after Icelandic women first refused to work, cook or care for children for a day.

That day back in October 1975 is seen as a turning point in gender equality in Iceland and with the 1980 appointment of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir – Europe’s first female president who was also the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as a head of state – many children grew up assuming the presidency was a woman’s job.

On Tuesday, Icelandic women – led by current Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir – who did not call a cabinet meeting and told her cabinet she expected other women to honour the strike – took the day off.

This time, it was aimed at the nation’s gender pay gap and the overrepresentation of women in domestic violence.

Isn’t the pay gap an issue where women in Australia struggle to have parity with their male peers? And aren’t women still the chief victims of domestic violence?

The facts speak for themselves: An average of 15 women each day are treated in hospital due to family and domestic violence, and one woman a week is murdered.

Disparity in the gender pay gap is embarrassing, with women earning $253 less each week – or $13,183 each year. And that doesn’t include super or overtime or bonuses.

So what would happen if the women of Australia joined forces to stop work for 24 hours?

Certainly, chaos would ensue. In Iceland, male radio broadcasters called homes randomly and found phones unanswered or stressed dads trying to pack dishwashers, empty washing machines and dress children.

But that’s just the start.

Imagine a male trying to drop a child off at a kindergarten, staffed by women – just not on this day.

And with 60 per cent of teachers female (but only 40 per cent of principals), many schools would also be forced to close their doors.

Protesters rally against sexual violence and gender inequality in Sydney in March 2021. Photo: Getty

The same goes for many universities. Just take south-east Queensland, where QUT, University of Queensland, Griffith University and the University of Southern Queensland would all be leaderless. Their vice-chancellors – Professors Geraldine Mackenzie, Carolyn Evans, Deborah Terry and Margaret Sheil – could (wo)man the picket lines.

Women might make up half of all employees (imagine the impact of that number of workers not turning up) but comprise only about a fifth of the nation’s CEOs.

Nevertheless, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock could head off to the beach, taking along with her Macquarie Bank’s Shemara Wikramanayake, Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill, Telstra’s Vicki Brady, Aware Super’s Deanne Stewart, Coles’ Leah Weckert and incoming chair of the Productivity Commission Danielle Wood.

Would the economy even be open on that day?

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson probably could be excused, because she’s still cleaning up the mess of her predecessor.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus could also claim a work exemption, because she might be best placed to lead the strike.

Any progression on talks involving Israel and Palestine would be less without Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and no state bills would be signed off with the governors of Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania all joining their sisterhood.

But what an upside for the vast majority of blokes in Australia, who do not now carry the weight of home chores and menial jobs or running the school tuckshop. (And that’s all shown in the statistics).

They’d get an extra 24 hours with their children, while running their banks and investment firms, lawn mower and building businesses.

And they wouldn’t have to spend time looking at the form guide either, because trainers Gai Waterhouse, Annabel Neasham, Sheila Laxon and jockeys Jamie Kah, Rachel King, Kathy O’Hara, Michelle Payne and Linda Meech would all be striking with the rest of us.

We – the women of Australia – would come home rested, but with a stronger appreciation, across the nation, of what we do each day, every day, for less pay.

Wishful thinking?