Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.12.2009, Síða 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2009
Without a sitting ambassador the halls
of the US Embassy in Reykjavík aren’t
as glamorous as they once were; the
light doesn’t reflect as brilliantly off
the windows and even the guard’s
smile seems a bit wan. It’s been six
months since Carol von Voorst quit her
post and the extended ambassadorial
absence hasn’t gone unnoticed—
instead, it has fuelled an intricate
rumour in which Iceland and the US
have been squabbling since January;
a rumour centred around a diplomatic
misstep known as the Order of the
Falcon incident.
The Order of the Falcon incident
started out innocently enough: On
April 8, 2009 the office of President
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson announced to
the then US Ambassador van Voorst
that she was being awarded the Order
of the Falcon, the highest recognition
of the Icelandic state. During her
drive to the ceremony, however, van
Voorst received a surprising phone
call. There had been a clerical mistake
—a mix-up of sorts: van Voorst wasn’t
being awarded anything at all. She
was, however, invited to proceed to
the ceremony regardless. Van Voorst
drove on. President Grímsson later
added insult to injury while trying to
explain the confusion when he clarified
to van Voorst that the Order was only
awarded to those who were deemed
worthy.
While this much of the story is
verifiably true—Kastljós and The
Iceland Review were among those to
report on it—online and word of mouth
gossip allege that the mishap was a
calculated snub; a diplomatic slap in
the face by the Icelandic government in
return for not receiving a presidential
invitation to Obama´s inauguration
ceremony earlier that year. After the
Order of the Falcon fiasco, the theory
goes, the US government decided to
return the insult by withdrawing its
ambassador indefinitely.
Kathy Eagan, the Acting Deputy
Chief of Mission and the Public Affairs
Officer of the US embassy, refutes
the rumour entirely. Ambassadors
are appointed by the President of
the United States, which means that
during election years all ambassadors
are obligated to offer a letter of
resignation. As soon as an ambassador
resigns, the process of finding their
replacement begins. Nominees
work their way up through the State
Department before being handpicked
by the White House. The White House
then sends the candidate’s resume
to the receiving government for a
separate approval process. Once the
foreign government agrees, the White
House declares its nominee and sends
them through the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, where they face
a Senate vote. It’s only after the Senate
consents that a nominee can properly
call him or herself an ambassador.
Connan, the ambassadorial
barbarian
Carol van Voorst was assigned a
standard three-year appointment
as the US ambassador to Iceland in
January of 2006. Although her time
was up in January 2009, van Voorst
extended her stay until April 30, long
enough to endure the Order of the
Falcon affair. Sometime in May, Eagan
says, the US embassy in Iceland was
informed that the Department of State
had launched a selection process for a
new ambassador. News soon surfaced
that President Obama had chosen a
nominee: a certain Robert S. Connan.
Reykjavík vetted the candidate
and signalled their approval. Then,
shortly before his approval before
the US Senate, Connan declined the
ambassadorship for personal reasons.
The selection process was re-
launched. Hustling an ambassador
through the process can take months;
in an election year with so many new
appointees, the process takes longer
still.
"We don’t just want a body, we
want the right person," Eagan says.
The internal and post-White House
processes can take 3–5 months each,
she says. In the meantime Eagan
assures that the embassy continues to
function smoothly.
"There is nothing unusual in this
situation. Twenty-two posts around
the world are currently without an
ambassador. We once went for a year
without an ambassador in Australia."
The US relationship, Eagan insists,
is as strong as ever. And as for the
missing invitation?
"All sitting ambassadors and their
spouses in Washington DC were
invited to the inauguration. That’s the
way it’s usually done and that’s the way
it was done this time."
Article | Gender Equality Article | Foreign Relations
The Case of the Missing
Ambassador
Are Iceland and the US bickering like
a couple of schoolgirls?
LOUISE PETERSSON
JULIA STAPLES
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – EDDAS AND SAGAS
The Ancient Vellums on Display
ICELAND :: FILM – Berlin – Copenhagen – Reykjavík
Icelandic Filmmaking 1904-2008
A LOOK INTO NATURE
The Story of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfi sgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · www.thjodmenning.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL MANU-
SCRIPTS exhibition Mon and Fri at 3:30 pm.
While gender equality is progressing
within Nordic politics, one problem that
has not been solved is the lack of women
in top positions within business and in-
dustry.
In order to identify the greatest chal-
lenges relating to gender equality within
politics and business, the Nordic Gender
Institute carried out a one year research
project in the Nordic countries entitled
Gender and Power. The results were re-
cently presented at a conference in Reyk-
javík and the Grapevine was there to pe-
ruse the findings.
EqUALITY SUCCESS!
The study is based on the assumption
that a balanced representation of gender
runs on the 40%–60% scale. “One of
the most important findings of the re-
search is that it is almost always women
that are close to 40% on the scale. Men,
meanwhile, seem to more often dominate
at 60% representation. So we have to dis-
cuss if this really is gender balance,” says
Kirsti Niskanen, head of research at the
Nordic Gender Institute, in an interview
after the conference.
Either way, the 40–60% target has
been reached in the parliaments of Fin-
land, Iceland and Sweden. In Denmark
and Norway, women account for just un-
der 40%. “Parliamentary politics can be
described as an equality success for all the
Nordic countries,” says Niskanen.
In Iceland there has been a significant
increase in Alþingi’s representation of
women since the mid-1990s —from 25%
to 43%. “Iceland has made progress in
this area. The country has almost always
lagged behind, but is now catching up,”
Niskanen explains.
The Nordic governments are in gen-
eral relatively gender-balanced. After the
2009 elections, there is a 50–50% repre-
sentation in the Icelandic government.
Finland alone has a government dominat-
ed by women with 60% representation.
Like Iceland, it’s 50–50 in Norway and in
Sweden; in Denmark women account for
just over 40% in government.
IT AIN’T ALL GOOD
The situation isn’t as good in the munici-
pal field. “It is much more unequal on
the municipal level,” says Niskanen. Only
Sweden, with 42% women, can be said to
have achieved gender balance at local lev-
el. On average, women amount to 36% of
Icelandic municipal governments, while
only one in four Danish local politicians
is a woman.
Kirsti Niskanen explains that greater
gender balance is found in areas that are
highly visible. Equality is not monitored
so closely at local authority level, there-
fore the representation of women is worse
here. “One of our findings is that in areas
where there is a constant discussion on
gender equality issues, we have 40–60%
women, as it is in parliamentary politics.
But areas where there is no discussion or
debate about gender equality are often
strongly male dominated.”
IT’S A MAN’S WORLD
The positive trends in politics are not
reflected in the fields of business and
industry—they remain extremely male
dominated in all the Nordic countries.
The proportion of women on the boards
of private companies ranges from 7 to
36%, with Iceland at 7% and Norway
topping the range at 36%. Public corpo-
rations are more gender-balanced, since
they are generally directly influenced by
equality laws and regulations.
“It looks rather dreary regarding gen-
der equality within the business sector in
Iceland” said Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdót-
tir, sociology professor at the University
of Iceland, at the conference. “We need
legislation to increase the amount of
women in top positions.”
The Icelandic gender equality legisla-
tion from 1985 states there should be a
proportion of 40–60% from each gender
in state-owned committees, councils and
boards. According to Rafnsdóttir there is
still a gender bias within private compa-
nies and organisations that are not sub-
ject to the legislation.
“If companies can’t present equal
boards of directors after the sharehold-
ers’ meetings next spring, we will have to
introduce a quota legislation resembling
the one in Norway,” Minister of Social Af-
fairs Árni Páll Árnason said at the open-
ing of the conference.
Iceland could therefore become the
second Nordic country to introduce gen-
der quotas in companies’ board of direc-
tors. The Norwegian parliament instated
such a law in 2003. It requires boards to
be at least 40% female. This has lead to
the proportion of women on the boards of
private companies in Norway rising from
9% in 2004 to 36% in 2009.
WHAT TO DO?
So why is there greater equality in politics
than business? Pressure from the wom-
en's movement and the fact that gender
equality issues have always been lively de-
bated in politics has been crucial, accord-
ing to Niskanen. Political parties also play
a key role in the development of political
representation, since they nominate the
candidates the voters can vote to office.
Lastly, legislation that has prescribed
gender balanced representation in state-
owned sectors has also had effect.
“There must be a greater demand for
women leaders in the business sector to
improve gender equality. In politics there
is a demand, we want female politicians
on high levels. We are just not there in
the world of business yet,” says Niskanen.
Some say quotas are the solution to
equality problems, some say they are not.
Within the realm of public discourse,
quotas are often controversial and create
a very lively debate. “Our results indicate
that quotas are not the universal solution,
but we do see that quotas are an effective
door opener. Quotas must, like any other
equality measure, be understood, ana-
lyzed and discussed in a social, political
and cultural context. Our wish is simply
that the findings of this project will be a
platform for discussion and an inspira-
tion for policy makers.”
Who’s Got The Power?
Gender and power in the Nordic countries
The Research Project - The project Gender and Power is the first of its kind. It maps and compares the top positions in politics and busi-
ness in the Nordic countries and the autonomous territories. A total of twenty researchers studied gender-policy developments and initia-
tives over the last fifteen years. The research was conducted by the Nordic Gender Institute on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers, and
they were presented at a conference in Reykjavík, 18–19 November.
MICHAEL ZELENKO