Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (Lucía Gil and Héctor Cristóbal

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

Lucía Gil and Héctor Cristóbal

Hello, my name is Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, I was born on April 15th 1930 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Nowadays I am 90 years old. I was the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president. I was initially elected in 1980 and I ruled for 16 years because I was reelected three times, until 1996.

I was the first daughter of an engineer and a president of the Nursing Association. I studied French and French literature in Paris between the years 1949 and 1953 and then History of the Theater at Copenhagen University. In 1972 after a disappointment with justice for trying to adopt a child being a single woman I adopted Astridur, becoming the first single woman adopting a child.

When I was young, the situation of women in Iceland wasn’t the best although it was better than in other Western countries. In fact, while in other countries having a female president was unthinkable, in Iceland it happened with me as the president. I wouldn’t have been the president if the day 24 of October (1975) hadn’t taken place. Instead of going to the office or doing housework there was an event known as “Women’s Day Off” related to the Icelandic women’s movement this is linked to the Icelandic women’s movement which changed the perception of the people in the country and we started the feminist struggle.

Going back to the year 1972, when I adopted Astridur, I had several problems with Icelandic justice system because a single woman adopting a child was frowned upon in society, so I had to fight a lot against justice in order to obtain my child. Despite the fact that many people did not trust a woman governing Iceland I kept going.

During my terms, I achieved equality between men and women. I carried out reforms such as forcing companies to equal pay and labor equality (male and female) and promoting the conciliation of men for respecting the women rights and supporting them. I also took part and developed the “Women’s Day Off” with another bunch of Icelandic women. I want to say a very important thing to everyone that is reading this. It is important to consolidate all the advances that women like me have made in nowadays society and also continue fighting in order to obtain equal rights for both genders (female and male). If there is something you think is wrong or it is not fair, your obligation as a human being is to fight and change it.

I hope I have made you aware of the huge importance of this topic.

Goodbye,

Vigdis Finnbogadottir

"I think, if the world can be saved, it will be by women"

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