The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Qupperneq 16

126
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING, 1994
with the English-speaking suffra-
gists, the belief in temperance, her
views on other matters were
markedly different. Her views on
divorce were more outspoken than
theirs. She was a pacifist; they were
staunchly patriotic. Benedictsson
emphasized the need for women to
take on a public role in life. While
they contended that women’s moral
superiority should be brought out of
the home and into the legislature,
she stressed the ideal of equality as
opposed to superiority. The like-
lihood that improved communi-
cations and increased co-operation
between the English and Icelandic
groups would have altered the
course of events would therefore
appear to have been slim. The
Icelandic suffrage movement failed
because the ideological sympathies
upon which it was based differed too
greatly from the views held by the
English-speaking suffragists.
Margret Benedictsson was a
woman "ahead of her time,” in
Canadian terms, when she argued
for equality. Yet in terms of her
cultural background and upbringing
she was arguing for a position for
women in Canadian society that to
her was right and just. Education
was accorded high priority in Iceland
and parents were encouraged to see
that daughters, as well as sons,
received sufficient education. Why
shouldn’t there then be equality of
opportunity for women as well as
men in Canada, not only in the
educational sphere, but in
employment and in public life as
well.
The struggle for woman suffrage is
but one example, albeit a significant
one, of Icelandic Canadian women’s
pursuit of equal opportunity. Ice-
landic Canadian women have
pursued equal opportunities along-
side men in most walks of life.

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