Womankind

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir The World’s First Female Head of State

Your election followed the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike. Why do you think the people of Iceland elected you for this role?

People knew me because I’d been on television programs and they knew what I had to say. Then, they also knew me as a theatre director (of the Reykjavík Theatre Company). So, I’m very proud of the fact that they had confidence in me. I have to stress I was never a politician though, and that the President of Iceland is not politically elected as in other countries. He or she does not belong to a political party.

You ran against three male candidates while you were a divorced single mother. You were also the first single woman to adopt a child

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