Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir on a state visit to the Netherlands (1985)

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir  [ 'vɪɣtiˑs' fɪnpɔɣaˌtouhtɪr ] (born April 15, 1930 in Reykjavík ) was President of Iceland from 1980 to 1996 . She was the first woman in the world to be elected head of state of a country.

Origin and education

Her mother was a nurse and chaired the relevant professional association for nearly 35 years , her father was an engineer and professor at the University of Iceland . The mother worked in Berlin during the Weimar Republic . She and her parents were present at the ceremony when the Republic of Iceland was founded in Þingvellir on June 17, 1944 .

Vigdís visited the renowned Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík . She then went to France to study in 1949. On the journey from Copenhagen to Paris, she crossed war-ravaged Germany - through the impressions she became a pacifist . She studied literature at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne in Paris and theater studies at the University of Copenhagen . She graduated from the University of Iceland with language studies in English and French and a thesis on English and French literature. She also obtained a pedagogical degree.

family

In 1953 she married the doctor Ragnar Arinbjörn, the marriage ended in divorce after nine years. After hard arguments with the authorities, she adopted a girl named Ástríður in 1972.

job

Vigdís worked as a French teacher, as a tour guide for the Icelandic tourist office and in the training of tour guides. After returning to Iceland, she was also involved in the theater scene. Vigdís was artistic director of the Reykjavík theater group Leikfélag Reykjavíkur and 1972–1980 director of the Reykjavík Municipal Theater ( Borgarleikhúsið ) . Until 1980 she designed and moderated a learning program for French on Icelandic television , where she also had her own cultural program.

politics

From 1976 to 1980 Vigdís was a member of the Council for Cultural Affairs in the Nordic countries.

Election campaign

In 1980 she was nominated as a candidate for the Icelandic state presidency. In the election she competed against Guðlaugur Þorvaldsson (former President of the University of Iceland), Pétur Thorsteinsson (former diplomat) and Albert Guðmundsson (former professional footballer and politician). It was the second election since the founding of the republic in 1944, in which several candidates ran. In 1975 Vigdís was involved in a general strike by women for "equal pay for equal work", in which more than 20% of Icelandic women took part. The support of the Seafarers' Association was also important for the success (Iceland has a strong women's movement). The captains' wives - the leading forces in society in the fishing settlements - and (via radio) the trawler captains supported their election campaign. The seafarers knew the situation and had good experiences with the fact that women could also be good managers, since in these social structures the men were often on the high seas and thus absent for longer.

She was controversial among voters, not only because she was a woman - she was also single with an adopted child. Another argument against her chances of success was that, as a pacifist, she had campaigned for the withdrawal of US forces from Iceland and had also demonstrated for it. The US armed forces represented an economic factor in Iceland that should not be underestimated.

Presidency

She won the election with 33.8% of the vote (Guðlaugur Þorvaldsson came second with 32.3%) and was the first democratically elected female head of state worldwide. Her term of office lasted from August 1, 1980 to August 1, 1996.

See also : List of female heads of state and government

The critical voices became increasingly silent in the course of her first term of office. She tried to support the women's strike in 1985, but then - after threatening to resign from the responsible minister - she had to sign the decree banning strikes for flight attendants . Important concerns of her presidency were the reforestation program for Iceland, the support of the Icelandic language and traditions and the movement for women's rights .

In 1984 and 1992 she was re-elected (unopposed), and in 1988 she won the election with more than 94% of the vote despite an opposing candidate. She did not run for the 1996 election.

After the presidency

In 1996 she became the founding chair of the Council of Women World Leaders . She is a member of the Club of Madrid and a UNESCO ambassador for the promotion of linguistic diversity, women's rights and education. She was also a member of the UNESCO COMEST Ethics Committee.

In a nationwide poll in 2005, Vigdís was voted the most important living political figure in Iceland, ahead of then-incumbent President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson .

honors and awards

Vigdís has received numerous foreign honors and honorary doctorates . On February 25, 1981 she was honored with the Danish Elephant Order and on June 9, 1986 she was accepted into the Nassau House Order of the Golden Lion . The University of Iceland's Foreign Language Institute has been named after her since October 2001.

literature

• Catrionia Burness: Fighting our Fight: In: Iceland Review 48.02 (2010). Pp. 20-24.
• Páll Valsson: Kona verður forseti. JPV Útgáfa. Reykjavík 2009. ISBN 978-9935-11-086-2 (German edition: Frau President. An Icelandic biography , Orlanda, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-936937-82-4 ).

See also

• List of female heads of state and government

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See: engl. Wikipedia
2. ↑ See: engl. Wikipedia
3. ↑ Jean Schoos : The medals and decorations of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the former Duchy of Nassau in the past and present. Publishing house of Sankt-Paulus Druckerei AG. Luxembourg 1990. ISBN 2-87963-048-7 . P. 345.

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .