The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2002, Side 35

Vol. 57 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
33
Icelandic Women
by Lark Barker
Walk down any street in present day
Gimli, Manitoba, and you will be cog-
nizant of the strong Icelandic heritage that
exists. Gimli boasts one of the largest
Icelandic communities, and Icelandic festi-
vals in North America. Icelanders in
Manitoba have maintained a strong tie with
their Icelandic ancestral homeland.
The Icelandic collection at the
University of Manitoba Elizabeth Dafoe
Library is the second largest in North
America, with the government of Iceland
contributing a substantial amount of
money to fund its updating and mainte-
nance. It is astounding that a small commu-
nity founded by only 365 immigrants 125
years ago could foster a legacy as lively and
strong as the one that exists today. The
foundation that allowed for Gimli, and all
Manitoban Icelanders, to maintain their
heritage and thrive in a new land, was built
by Icelandic immigrant women.
The Icelanders sustained their culture,
and thrived in their new nation, due to an
individual determination and a series of
integrated societies and community organi-
zations. That women were in charge, or
helped found many of these organizations
is astounding—considering the heavy
demands faced by new immigrants. More
astounding is the trivialization of these
organizations’ crucial role in their commu-
nities in the writing of history, and the
importance and impact of the immigrant
women within them. Icelandic women
were ominously left out of the writing of
Icelandic history in Canada. If mentioned,
they were only portrayed in their physical
feminine boundaries. As anthropologist
Maxine Seller notes, much has been written
about men, much less has been written
about women who emigrated to North
America. Historians, regardless of ethnici-
ty or gender, have overlooked the contri-
butions of women to their communities.
Fifty years ago, anthropologists had
begun to examine the social roles of immi-
grant women in their cultures. However, it
was only when the women ventured out of
their homes and became important partici-
pants in organizations such as the labour
strike, or suffrage movement, that their
work was viewed important and influen-
tial. That women’s roles were only being
viewed in the context of gender specific
roles in relation to the family sphere, and
not on the broader text of society as a
whole, greatly downplays the role and
validity of the essential role of immigrant
women in family survival and cultural
transgression. A. Weinberg states, “The
study of immigrant history has been dis-
torted and impoverished by the omission
of women’s roles.”
This article hopes to recover an accu-
rate account of the historiography of
women’s immigration history, and to
objectively detail a specific case of immi-
gration history, that of the Icelandic immi-
grations to New Iceland and Winnipeg.
The article will also analyze the role and
impact of Icelandic women on their fami-
lies and communities. These objectives
hope to be fulfilled by addressing the role
and impact of the immigrant women that
have been ignored, or overshadowed.
Although there were families and sin-
gle men who emigrated, single women
were enticed by the prospect of their high
commodity as domestic servants. In a
speech given in 1890 to the Lutheran con-
gregation, Fridrik Bergmann had stated,
“Here to this country has come a whole
group of Icelandic females. More females
than men.” A lot of women that came were
single and of best age. They had heard from
immigration experiences and officers that
they could make a lot of money as maids,