Women's Political Life in Modern Iceland

Consider, however, Grondal's evaluation of the famous capital of Iceland summit coming upon of 1986, between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and U.S.S.R. First escritoire Mikhail Gorbachev:

During Finnbogadottir's long and successful presidency a few events hold up out, among them the 1986 summit meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at the Hofdi House in Reykjavik. When U.S. Congressman Doug Bereuter (R-Nebraska) recently presented the Icelandic people with documents about this summit, the photographs of President Finnbogadottir and her American counterpart show a buoyant Reagan at the beginning of the meeting and a disappointed Reagan at the end. With the social welfare of hindsight, historians today conclude that Reagan's show of strength and trust in his instincts brought the Cold War to an end. Unfortunately, he could not relieve oneself cognize that at the time (Grondal 8).

The significance of Finnbogadottir's presence as soldiery of the summit can partly be inferred. There she is, presiding in a more or less social itinerary everyplace a Cold War summit meeting; after all, Iceland was not party to U.S.-U.S.S.R. talks. Now this is consistent with a traditional view of women as nurturant enablers of more important, potent activities. It would seem to diminish the stature of Finnbogadottir in terms of in

Finnbogadottir's rise to the presidency was something of a ramp to the country because of Iceland's reputation and history as a phallic-dominated culture. To be sure, Finnbogadottir could be interpreted as the beneficiary of a divide vote for all the male candidates. But this alone does not explain how Finnbogadottir could become a highly popular candidate, habituated evidence of Iceland's conservative, patriarchal social milieu. Finnbogadottir's 1980 election did not determine and revolutionize Icelandic politics, which remains dominated by males and male values. To be sure, though many women are employed outback(a) 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 elective position of moral rather than political authority." Kunzig also cites Finnbogadottir's prepolitical go as a teacher, student of theatre, and director of Reykjavik civil Theatre. Despite Finnbogadottir's personal charisma and beauty, these attributes are hardly conventional preparation for national leadership.

To see how and why this socially untraditional woman rose persistently in stature over the course of her presidency, it is necessary to look at the evidence of her disk and at the political scene in Iceland throughout the 16 divisions of her presidency. By the way, this is the same number of years of the American administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1932-45). FDR of course died in 1945, one year before the 1946 American presidential election; otherwise the proportion would seem to hold. On the other hand, it would be inaccurate to swan that Finnbogadottir's years as president were without controversy. Part of the controversy appears to begin stemmed from long-standing Icelandic political and social circumstances, and part of it appears to have stemmed from the figure of Finnbogadottir herself. That is to say, Icelandic politics intrin
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