Vigdis Finnbogadottir, President of Iceland

This research will examine Vigdis Finnbogadottir, president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996, and the political life in Iceland, from the women's point of view. The research will set forth the context in which political life in modern Iceland has been so strongly connected to Finnbogadottir's work and women's issues and then discuss the significance of Iceland's politics in the context of larger geopolitical interests.

The election in 1980 of Vigdis Finnbogadottir as president of Iceland was noteworthy in a number of ways. Both at the time and subsequently, it was noted that Finnbogadottir was the first woman ever democratically elected president of a country. It would have been appropriate to note as well that women had been elected heads of state before 1980, in particular Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain (a constitutional monarchy) and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India (a parliamentary democracy) in earlier years. Nevertheless, achievement of the office itself was important because of the environment of social issues surrounding Finnbogadottir's election. Grondal (7) explains that when Finnbogadottir entered the campaign she received criticism "for being a divorced, single mother, when only couples had ever lived at Bessastadir, the presidential residence." As Grondal adds, Finnbogadottir was elected, not by a majority but by a plurality (legal under Iceland's electoral system) of 33.8 percent of votes. But this did not prevent her political popularity from bein

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f. That is to say, Icelandic politics intrinsically were and are as complicated as any politics in any country in the West. Finnbogadottir's rise to the presidency was something of a surprise to the country because of Iceland's reputation and history as a male-dominated culture. To be sure, Finnbogadottir could be interpreted as the beneficiary of a split vote for all the male candidates. But this alone does not explain how Finnbogadottir could become a highly popular candidate, given evidence of Iceland's conservative, patriarchal social milieu. Finnbogadottir's 1980 election did not reshape and revolutionize Icelandic politics, which remains dominated by males and male values. To be sure, though many women are employed outside the home sphere, they earn about 60 percent of their male counterparts in the workplace (Sigmundsdottir 24). Kunzig (98) explains Finnbogadottir's presidency with reference to the presidency itself, "an elected position of moral rather than political authority." Kunzig also cites Finnbogadottir's prepolitical career as a teacher, student of theatre, and director of Reykjavik Civic Theatre. Despite Finnbogadottir's personal charisma and beauty, these attributes are hardly formal preparation for national lea

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