Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.07.2014, Page 14

Best | Equality?






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14
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2014
Women are reportedly more equal to
men in Iceland than any other place
in the world. But does this mean that
we have reached the goal of gender
equality?
In international media and dis-
course, Iceland is often portrayed
as the best place to be a woman. We
certainly use it to market ourselves
to tourists and boast of it in our
own media. This is in large part due
to the recognition we have received
from the World Economic Forum’s
Global Gender Gap Index. For five-
years in a row now, Iceland has
been ranked as number one on the
Global Gender Gap index, which
means that we have the world’s
lowest “Gender Gap.”
The Gender Gap is measured by
comparing women’s status to that
of men in four categories: Health
and survival, economic partici-
pation and opportunity, political
empowerment and educational
attainment. The status of men in
the specific country is always mea-
sured as the digit 1. They then mea-
sure the status of women by how
much it differs from the men’s. This
way, the Forum avoids ranking
countries by their level of develop-
ment.
This, however, does not nec-
essarily mean that we have the
world’s smallest gender inequal-
ity (if that can even be measured?)
because the gender gap is not a
sufficient measurement for gender
equality. For instance, just because
women are doing the same thing as
men does not mean that the genders
are equal, have equal opportunities
or experience equal treatment.
One of the main reasons that
Iceland ranks high on the Global
Gender Gap index is the fact that
for sixteen years (1980–1996), we
had a female president, Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir, the first female
president in the world to be elected
in a democratic election. Also, af-
ter the financial crisis in 2008, the
number of women in government
grew exceptionally from 31,7% in
2007 to 42,9% in 2009.
These facts contribute to our
high score on the index but do not
mean that being involved in poli-
tics in Iceland is easy for a woman.
Women in politics is still a rarity,
with men far outnumbering women
in government, even though there
have been equal voting rights for
almost 100 years! And those wom-
en who do work in politics often do
not last as long as men and they less
frequently inhabit the higher posi-
tions.
Although Iceland has the small-
est Gender Gap, there is still much
room for improvement and it is
important not to deduce from Ice-
land’s relatively small gender gap
that Iceland is a country with gen-
der equality.
The Best
Place In The
World To Be
A Woman?
Freyja Barkardóttir
Do you think Iceland deserves
to be called the 'best place to be a
woman'?
I think the focus on which country is
the "best place to be a woman" isn't
helpful. This is not a competition. But
we are certainly doing well in some as-
pects of the gender equality struggle,
and not as well in others. It's good to
share the experiences and practices
that are proving useful in achieving
gender equality, but we have to keep
focusing on a) keeping up the good
work where things are in fact going
well and b) improving ourselves on the
issues where we can do better.
In what ways are women and non-
binary people lagging behind men?
There are numerous ways in which
they are second-class citizens such as
with the gender-based pay gap and
gender segregated labour market, as
well as the prevalence of gender-based
sexual violence, sexism in media and
pop-culture, and sexism and hate-
speech in general. Society’s tendency
to give more respect to men and male
qualities over women and female qual-
ities is also out of order.
What improvements have we seen
with regard to gender equality in
the last year?
I want to be optimistic that positive
changes are going to come from with-
in the police. Following a report on the
issue last year, there has been a lot of
discussion about the status of women
on the force. It was also positive that
laws about gender quotas on boards
of firms came into action last autumn
(although these mostly benefited edu-
cated, upper-class women). The most
positive thing about the fight for gen-
der equality in the last year has been
the debate, how active it is, how criti-
cal and fun and brave the feminists
participating in it are, and how many
people engage in feminist activism one
way or another.
In what way could Iceland become
a more egalitarian society?
I think there is space for improvement
in almost all spheres of our society.
There are people working on many
fronts to achieve more equality and
if they were given more support, they
could undoubtedly do more. There are
too many active projects to list here,
but I think one deserves a special men-
tion. Research, data and experience
suggest that struggling minorities and
subordinated groups in society almost
always have in common that they their
economic situation is worse than the
privileged and those keeping them
down. So social justice, adequate wag-
es for all and a good and strong wel-
fare system are therefore probably the
most important qualities required to
becoming a more egalitarian society.
How can ordinary citizens help
create that society?
Simple: Participate in feminist activ-
ism. Go to a meeting, write a piece
about equality, don't laugh at a sexist
joke, try to influence others, don't let
your friends make sexist comments
without calling them out on it, join a
feminist group, write a letter to the
media when they fuck up, be critical,
think about inclusiveness, ask your
boss about the workplace’s equal pay
policy (including your own salary),
share the household chores equally
with your partner, discuss equal-
ity and feminism with your family, do
whatever you can. It all counts.
Despite being ranked number one on the The World Eco-
nomic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, many argue that
Iceland still has a ways to go to attain real gender equality.
We reached out to Steinunn Rögnvaldsdóttir, the former
spokesperson for Iceland’s Feminist Association who is now
working on a book about abortions in Iceland, to get her in-
put on the issue.
For A Better
Society
Interviewed by Tómas Gabríel Benjamin