Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Meanwhile in Iceland

Johanna Sigurdardottir is the Prime Minister of Iceland.

Age of Testosterone comes to end in Iceland
excerpt: No one doubts that there is a gender revolution under way, and not just because Ms Sigurdardottir, 66, is the world's first openly gay Prime Minister. “If you crash the economy,” declared an irreverent Icelandic blogger, “the lesbians take over”.

After the Crash, Icelands Women Lead the Rescue
This article mentions a "Bjork fund" created by two Icelandic women running a large financial firm.

This is a quote from an interview with Sigurdardottir:

Your government is 50 per
cent female. Is equality important to your vision for Iceland?

Definitely! My long experience in politics tells me that egalitarian policies are the best way to unite and empower people, and are also a necessary counterweight to the sometimes dividing and detrimental influence of market forces. A society that does not use the intellectual power of its female population fully is not a wise society. Women are now the majority of students in the Icelandic universities, and 43 per cent of our MPs.
We have to use all our resources to bounce back from the recession and we expect women to take their full part in the new era. Most women are not as tainted by mistakes in the conduct of the economy as the male population, and now they deserve an opportunity. We are determined to achieve gender equality in the political sphere but, unfortunately, the corporate side is still lacking. This is odd, because international research shows that companies with a sound gender policy are better run and more profitable than male-dominated companies. We are prepared to introduce legislation that would actively encourage the private sector to adopt a wiser and more effective gender policy.
By the way, it's not a coincidence that the World Economic Forum recently ranked Iceland first in its annual, 134-country survey of gender equality, followed closely by Norway, Finland and Sweden. We would like to keep that position!

[end quote]

This is what horses look like in Iceland:

2 comments:

Power One said...

Hahah I love that quote about lesbians takin over Iceland. Great post Sean!

E. Connor said...

WORD