The Icelandic Canadian - 01.05.2008, Síða 33

Vol. 61 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
123
women who were oppressed and unhappi-
ly married (Johnson, 1994, p. 122). She sup-
ported those in her church and held
tombolas (a kind of lottery) to raise funds
for girls to attend school. She used the
magazine, Freyja, and her short stories
(Wolf, 1996, 76-84) plus her lectures to
spread the message of hope for women in
Manitoba. The fact that her articles were
penned under another name is evidence
that she was not looking for personal gain
or recognition; she just wanted to get the
information to women about human rights.
Although, some outside the Icelandic com-
munity felt she was radical in her feminist
tenacity (Kinnear, 1987, p. 26), she did not
appear to waver from her effort to gain the
franchise for women.
Benedictsson lived in Gimli, Winnipeg,
and Selkirk and moved back to Winnipeg.
Benedictsson (1866-1956) lived to be 90
years.
Implications
The typical model for leadership dur-
ing the lifetime of Benedictsson, was hier-
archical (top down power) and male domi-
nated. Also, one was often born into lead-
ership as a result of being born into a
wealthy family that owned a business. The
cultural expectation for middle-class
women was one of maintaining the home,
bearing children, and supporting a spouse
as he earned a living. A woman could serve
outside the home, in the church, as a nurse,
as a volunteer with the poor and needy, or
as a classroom teacher. Some women
worked in stores as clerks and offices as
secretaries. Margret Benedictsson, fol-
lowed her unique path to service.
Benedictsson used her office and secre-
tarial skills while running the publishing
business with her husband in Selkirk and
Winnipeg. She helped create, with Sigfus,
the suffrage publication, Freyja. She served
and led Icelandic committees in her church
and community; spoke/wrote on human
rights issues, including opportunities for
women, and became leader of the suffrage
movement in the Manitoba Icelandic com-
munity.
Although Benedictsson lived in the lat-
ter part of the 1800s, Robert K. Greenleaf
(1904-1990) wrote about these characteris-
tics in the 1960s, and finally formulated
them into a model of leadership, which he
termed servant-leadership. The research
results imply that it was possible for a pio-
neer woman to demonstrate leadership in
society, but she did so by fulfilling a differ-
ent and unrecognized model, one that is
now called servant-leadership. Women do
lead despite their circumstances, and they
probably always have, except we did not
have the language of servant-leadership to
put their acts into this particular frame-
work. Present day women, who read the
story of Benedictsson may find a connec-
tion or identify with this form of leader-
ship. The concept of service to others is
found within Judeo-Christian doctrines
and the incentive to serve and to lead utiliz-
ing a servant-leadership model may be
viable for those interested in leadership. An
important realization is identified by
Greenleaf (2002). He tells of the subtleness
of the servant-leader in action and how
they are viewed by others (the public),
“They do not see the servant-leadership in
action as you saw it. And that may be the
fundamental key. Effective servant-leaders
can be so subtle about it that all anybody is
likely to see is the result. They don’t see the
cause” (Greenleaf, 2002, p. 151). This par-
ticular fact has implications for students of
leadership. Owens (1995/2001) states, “The
transformational leader is well aware that
leadership involves not command and
coercion, but encouraging the constant
growth and development of followers. It is
a teaching-learning process” (p. 257).
Benedictsson was a true educator and
involved in the teaching-learning process.
Benedictsson educated herself about
human rights and women’s issues and suf-
frage through reading, through establishing
ongoing correspondence with other suf-
frage leaders in Canada and the United
States. She transferred the information
onto the pages of Freyja to educate her
readers and into the lectures she delivered
to the Icelandic community. Feminist the-
orists including Gilligan (1982); Helgesen
(1990); Shakeshaft (1987); and Rosener
(1990), suggest women may have a differ-
ent way of leading than the “traditional