Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (; born 4 October 1942) is an Icelandic politician, who served as

prime minister of Iceland The prime minister of Iceland () is head of government of the Republic of Iceland. The prime minister is appointed formally by the president of Iceland, president and exercises executive authority along with the Cabinet of Iceland, cabinet subje ...

from 2009 to 2013. Elected as an MP from 1978 to 2013, she was appointed as Iceland's Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security, serving from 1987 to 1994, and from 2007 until 2009. In 1994, when she lost a bid to head the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

, she raised her fist and declared "''Minn tími mun koma!''" ("My time will come!"), a phrase that became a popular Icelandic expression. Later in 1994, she left the party and formed her own party, National Awakening (''Þjóðvaki''), with her as leader. The party received 7.1% of the popular vote in the 1995 parliamentary election and four elected MPs. In 1996 all of the MPs joined the

. In the 1999 election, National Awakening ran with the newly formed

Social Democratic Alliance The Social Democratic Alliance (, ) is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Iceland, political party in Iceland. The party is positioned on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum and their ...

. In 2000 the party officially merged with the Social Democratic Alliance. Jóhanna became prime minister on 1 February 2009, in a minority cabinet formed after the previous coalition was dissolved following the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis. Her coalition received a majority in the 2009 parliamentary election. She became Iceland's first female prime minister and the world's first openly LGBT

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

in modern times. ''

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'' listed her among the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2009. She was a member of the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

(Iceland's parliament) for

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

constituencies from 1978 to 2013, winning re-election on eight successive occasions. In September 2012, Jóhanna announced she would not seek re-election and retired from politics as then-Iceland's longest serving member of Parliament.

Education and early career

Jóhanna was born in

. Her father was Sigurður Egill Ingimundarson. She studied at the Commercial College of Iceland, a vocational high school operated by the Chamber of Commerce. After graduating with her commercial diploma in 1960, she worked as a

flight attendant A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

with

Icelandic Airlines Icelandic refers to anything of, from, or related to Iceland and may refer to: *Icelandic people *Icelandic language *Icelandic orthography *Icelandic cuisine See also * Icelander (disambiguation) Icelander can refer to: *A person from the coun ...

(a predecessor of

Icelandair Icelandair is the flag carrier of Iceland. Linked from here It is part of the Icelandair Group and operates to destinations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean from its main airline hub, hub at Keflavík International Airport. Its smaller dom ...

) from 1962 to 1971, and as an office manager from 1971 to 1978. She was active in the trade union movement from early in her professional life, presiding over the Board of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association in 1966 and 1969 and over the Board of Svölurnar, Association of Former Stewardesses in 1975. She was also a member of the Board of the Commercial Workers' Union from 1976 to 1983.

Political career

Jóhanna was elected to the Althing in 1978 on the list of the

for the

constituency. She enjoyed early success in her parliamentary career, serving as deputy speaker of the

in 1979 and in 1983–84. She was elected vice-chairperson of the Social Democratic Party in 1984, a post she held until 1993. She was also Minister of Social Affairs in four separate Cabinets from 1987 to 1994, when she left the Social Democratic Party after losing the leadership contest to form a new party, National Awakening; the two parties remerged in 2000 to form the present

. Her 1994 declaration ''Minn tími mun koma!'' ("My time will come!"), after she lost the contest for the leadership of the Social Democratic Party, has become an iconic phrase in the

Icelandic language Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national languag ...

. From 1994 to 2003, she was an active member of the opposition in the Althing, serving on numerous parliamentary committees. After the 2003 elections, which she contested from the Reykjavík South constituency (after the split of the old Reykjavík constituency), she was re-elected deputy speaker of the Althing. The 2007 elections, which she contested from the Reykjavík North constituency, saw the return of the Social Democratic Alliance to government in coalition with the Independence Party, and Jóhanna was named Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security.

Prime minister

Icelandic financial crisis, protests and elections

On 26 January 2009, Prime Minister

Geir Haarde Geir Hilmar Haarde (; born 8 April 1951) is an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 15 June 2006 to 1 February 2009, and as president of the Nordic Council in 1995. Geir was chairman of the Icelandic Independence Par ...

tendered the coalition government's resignation to the

President of Iceland The president of Iceland () is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Halla Tómasdóttir, who won the 2024 Icelandic presidential election, 2024 presidential election. The president is not involved in the running of the country, bu ...

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (; born 14 May 1943) is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland, serving from 1996 to 2016.

. After talks with the leaders of the five parties represented in the Althing, the President asked the Social Democratic Alliance and the

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement (, ), also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. Since the 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election, the party has had no members in the Althing. The party chairper ...

to form a new government and to prepare for elections in the spring. Jóhanna was proposed as prime minister for the new government; two reasons for this were her popularity among the general public and her good relations with the Left-Green Movement. An opinion poll by Capacent Gallup in December 2008 found 73% approval of her actions as a minister, more than any other member of the cabinet: she was also the only minister to have improved her approval ratings over 2008. The new government needed the support of the Progressive Party in the Althing. Negotiations continued up to the evening of 31 January, and the new cabinet was appointed on 1 February. Independent polling showed that Jóhanna and

Steingrímur J. Sigfússon Steingrímur Jóhann Sigfússon (born 4 August 1955) is an Icelandic politician. He has been a member of the Althing (Icelandic parliament) since 1983 and was the founding chairman of the Left-Green Movement (''Vinstri hreyfingin – grænt fra ...

, leader of the Left-Green Movement, the other party in the coalition government, enjoyed considerable support outside their own parties. On 25 April 2009, a

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

was held in Iceland, following the protests now known as the Kitchenware Revolution that resulted from the Icelandic financial crisis. The Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, which formed the outgoing

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

under Jóhanna, both made gains and together had an overall majority of seats in the Althing. The Progressive Party also made gains, and the new Citizens' Movement, formed after the January 2009 protests, gained four seats. The Independence Party, which had been in power for eighteen years until January 2009, lost a third of its support and nine seats in the Althing. On 10 May 2009, the new government was announced, with Jóhanna staying on as prime minister.

Overcoming the financial crisis

There were several referendums to decide about the Icesave Icelandic bank debts, center of the country's financial crisis. The first Icesave referendum (), was held on 6 March 2010. After the referendum, new negotiations commenced. On 16 February 2011, the Althing agreed to a repayment deal to pay back the full amount starting in 2016, finalising before 2046, with a fixed interest rate of 3%. The Icelandic president once again refused to sign the new deal on 20 February, calling for a new referendum. Thus, a second referendum would be held on 9 April 2011 also resulting in "no" victory with a lesser percentage. After the referendum failed to pass, the British and Dutch governments said that they would take the case to the European courts. At a session on 28 September 2010, the Althing voted 33–30 to indict the former prime minister Geir Haarde, but not the other ministers, on charges of negligence in office. He stood trial before the '' Landsdómur'', a special court to hear cases alleging misconduct in government office, used for the first time since it was established in the 1905

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

New Icelandic constitution process

Once in power, the left coalition led by Jóhanna—comprising the

, the Left-Green Movement, the Progressive Party and the

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—inspired largely by the citizen protests, agreed to convene a constitutional assembly to discuss changes to the

, in use since 1905. Taking its cue from nationwide protests and lobbying efforts by civil organisations, the new governing parties decided that Iceland's citizens should be involved in creating a new constitution and started to debate a bill on 4 November 2009 about that purpose. Parallel to the protests and parliament deliverance, citizens started to unite in grassroots-based think-tanks. A National Forum was organised on 14 November 2009, Þjóðfundur 2009, in the form of an assembly of Icelandic citizens at the

Laugardalshöll Laugardalshöll (; also known as Laugardalshöllin and Laugardalsholl Sport Center) is a multi-purpose sports and exhibition venue located in the Laugardalur district of Iceland's capital Reykjavík. The complex consists of two main venues, a s ...

, by a group of

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

citizen movements collectively called "the Anthill". 1,500 people were invited to participate in the assembly; of these, 1,200 were chosen at random from the national registry. On 16 June 2010 the Constitutional Act was finally accepted by parliament and a new Forum was summoned. The Constitutional Act prescribed that the participants of the Forum had to be randomly sampled from the National Population Register. The Forum 2010 came into being due to the efforts of both governing parties and the Anthill group. A seven-member Constitutional Committee, appointed by the parliament, was charged with the supervision of the forum and the presentation of its results, while the organization and facilitation of the National Forum 2010 was done by the Anthill group that had organized the first Forum 2009. The process continued in the election of 25 people of no political affiliation on 26 October 2010. The Supreme Court of Iceland later invalidated the results of the election on 25 January 2011 following complaints about several faults in how the election was conducted, but the Parliament decided that it was the manner of the election, and not the results, that had been questioned, and also that those 25 elected candidates would be a part of a Constitutional Council and thus the Constitutional change went on. On 29 July 2011 the draft was presented to the Parliament, which finally agreed in a vote on 24 May 2012, with 35 in favor and 15 against, to organize an advisory referendum on the Constitutional Council's proposal for a new constitution no later than 20 October 2012. The only opposing parliament members were the former governing right party, the Independence Party. Also a proposed referendum on the discontinuing of accession talks with the European Union by some parliamentarians of the governing left coalition was rejected, with 34 votes against and 25 in favor.

Women's rights and ban on striptease

In 2010, her government banned

strip clubs A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

, paying for nudity in restaurants, and other means of employers profiting from employees' nudity – the first such ban in a Western democratic country. Jóhanna commented: "The

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

are leading the way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale." Responding to the policy change

radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...

Julie Bindel, writing for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, stated that Iceland had become the most feminist country in the world. Asked what the most important gender issue today is, she answered "To fight the pay gap between men and women".

Personal life

Jóhanna married Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson in 1970 and the couple had two sons named Sigurður Egill Þorvaldsson and Davíð Steinar Þorvaldsson (born 1972 and 1977). After their divorce in 1987, she joined in a

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

with Jónína Leósdóttir (born 1954), an author and playwright, in 2002. In 2010, when same-sex marriage was legalised in Iceland, Jóhanna and Jónína changed their civil union into a marriage, thus becoming one of the first same-sex married couples in Iceland. In 2017, she released a biography entitled ''Minn tími'' ("My Time"). The biography covers one of the most contentious periods in Icelandic history – from the financial crash of autumn 2008, through protests and emergency elections the following year, and the difficult recovery period that followed leading Iceland's left wing government.

References

External links