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Tens of thousands of women braved the autumn chill Monday and took to the streets in the capital of Iceland -- a country renowned for its gender equality -- demanding equal wages in an event that takes place here every five years.

Women all over Iceland -- including female Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir -- left work at 14.25 today in a co-ordinated action to highlight continuing inequality in society.

Every five years since 1975, Icelandic women have protested against gender inequality by marching through the streets on October 24 unless its a weekend.

This year they walked off the job after completing just 66 percent of their work day to mark the fact that women earn on average 34 percent less than men.

At around 1500 GMT, police said up to 27,000 demonstrators had gathered and they expected more to join.

"It's been 35 years since the walk happened for the first time, and there's still a significant salary difference between the sexes," Inga Dora Petursdottir of women's group UNIFEM Iceland told AFP, calling the walkout a unique event "specific to Iceland".

And yet, Iceland earlier this month topped a gender gap index released by the World Economic Forum for the second year running.

It was followed by Norway and Finland while Pakistan, Chad and Yemen were at the bottom of the 134-nation rankings.

The report acknowledged there was "a significant difference between men’s and women’s salaries" in Iceland, but said the country had made gains "because of an increase in the number of women ministers, a near gender-balanced parliament and the continued tenure of a female prime minister".

Petursdottir added that this year's protest also wanted to draw attention to sexual and domestic abuse.