Rannveig Þorsteinsdóttir (6 July 1904 – 18 January 1987) was an Icelandic lawyer, judge, teacher, and politician. She was a Progressive Party member of the

Alþingi The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...

, the national parliament of Iceland, from 1949 to 1953. In 1959, she became the first woman to practice law before the

Supreme Court of Iceland The Supreme Court of Iceland (, lit. ''Highest Court of Iceland'') is the final court of appeal in the judiciary of Iceland. It is also the oldest of the current courts of law in Iceland and the highest of the three Icelandic court branches, t ...

Biography

Rannveig was born on 6 July 1904 in Mjóifjörður, Iceland. She was the daughter of Þorsteinn Sigurðsson, a fisherman, and Ragnhildur Hansdóttir, a housemaker. Rannveig graduated from Samvinnuskólinn (now

Bifröst University Bifröst University () is located in the valley of Norðurárdalur, approximately 30 kilometers north of Borgarnes, Iceland. Originally a business school, it also offers degrees in law and social sciences, at both bachelor's and master's level, ...

) in 1924, and worked as a clerk for ''

Tíminn ''Tíminn'' () was an Icelandic daily newspaper founded in 1917. It had close ties with the Icelandic Progressive Party but after years of financial difficulties, the party severed all ties with the paper in 1993. It merged with the newspaper ''Da ...

'', an Icelandic newspaper, from 1925 to 1936. During that time, she was also a part-time teacher at Samvinnuskólinn between 1926 and 1933. In 1934, she began a job as a receptionist for a

tobacconist A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retailer of tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specia ...

, and held the position until 1946. Rannveig graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, a

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

, in 1946 and enrolled at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

, where she received a degree in law in 1949. She was elected to the

, Iceland's national parliament, that year as a member of the Progressive Party. She was one of only two women in the Alþingi, along with , and served a single four-year term. During her time in the Alþingi, she was an advocate for women's rights. She established a law office in Reykjavík in 1949, and was a judge in the Reykjavík courts beginning in 1950. From May 1951 to January 1952, Rannveig was a member of the Icelandic delegation to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...

, and she was a substitute member of the assembly from 1952 to 1965. In 1959, Rannveig obtained a license to practice before the

, becoming the first woman in Iceland to do so. She retired from her legal career in 1974, and died on 18 January 1987 at the age of 82.

References