Iceland review - 2015, Page 10

8 ICELAND REVIEW
July 7, 1915. Two hundred girls dressed
in white and waving the Icelandic
flag—displayed as the official flag for
the first time on that day—followed
by a procession of women, make
their way from Lækjargata in central
Reykjavík to Austurvöllur, the square on which
Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, stands. To mark
King Christian X of Denmark signing legislation
giving Icelandic women over the age of 40 and all
adult men the right to vote in parliamentary elec-
tions on June 19 that year, a delegation of women
enters the parliament and addresses the assembly.
Parliamentarians shout “hurrah” three times and
then the milestone is celebrated on Austurvöllur.
Iceland became one of the first countries in the
world to gant women the right to vote. A bigger
crowd had rarely—if ever—gathered there before.
June 19, 2015. A parade led by singing children,
dressed in bright clothing and waving the Icelandic
flag, enters Austurvöllur where thousands of men,
women and children have gathered to celebrate a
major victory for gender equality: the centennial
anniversary of women’s suffrage. Former President
of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir addresses the
crowd. “There are countless milestones in the
100-year journey of Icelandic women,” she says.
“However, even though gender equality has been
achieved in Iceland by law, we know that much is
missing before true equality will be reached. We
still have a long way to go before women will earn
the same salaries as men, in spite of the fact that
laws that were meant to guarantee the same pay
for the same jobs have been in effect for more than
four decades.”
In 100 years, gradual progress has been made
towards gender equality in Iceland. In 1920, all
adult women earned the right to vote, and in 1922
the first Icelandic woman, Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason,
entered parliament. However, Iceland didn’t get a
female minister until 1970, when Auður Auðuns
joined the cabinet. In 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
became Iceland’s first female president—and the
world’s first woman to be democratically elected
head of state. Iceland’s first female prime minister
was Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who took office in
2009. It took a century to get there, but today, 40
percent of parliamentarians—as well as 40 percent
of ministers—in Iceland are women. *
Just as they did 100 years ago, children
lead the parade to Austurvöllur to
celebrate women’s suffrage.