Jónína Jónatansdóttir (22 May 1869 – 1 December 1946) was a labor leader and local representative in

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 ...

from

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

Life and career

Jónína was born 22 May 1869 in Gullbringusýsla County in what is now

Garðabær Garðabær () is a town and municipality in the Capital Region of Iceland. History Garðabær is a growing town in the Capital Region. It is the fifth largest municipality in Iceland with a population of 20,116 (1 January 2025). The site of Gar ...

. She later moved to

where she became a vocal proponent for

Women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

. There, she soon joined the

Icelandic Women's Rights Association The Icelandic Women's Rights Association () is the largest women's rights organization in Iceland and works for "women’s rights and the equal status of all genders in all areas of society." The association stands for an inclusive, intersectional ...

in 1910. Her political activities began in 1912, when she started organizing a labor union for women. On 21 April 1913, at a meeting of the Women's Rights Association, she spoke out to say the group needed to do something to improve women's working conditions. Two years later on 25 October 1914, she founded ("Progress"), the first union for women in the history of Iceland. Jónína Jónatansdóttir was selected as the union's first chair, a position she would remain in for the next twenty years. The same year she founded Progress, Jónína was placed second on the for the

Reykjavík City Council The Reykjavík City Council ( Icelandic: ''Borgarstjórn Reykjavíkur'') is the local council for Reykjavík, the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is composed of 23 members elected by proportional representation for a 4-year term The Cou ...

. With Progress, Jónína also helped to found the

Icelandic Confederation of Labour The Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASÍ) (Icelandic: Alþýðusamband Íslands) is a trade union centre in Iceland. It was formed in 1916 and has a membership of 104,500, approximately half of the Icelandic workforce. The ASÍ is affiliated ...

( ASI) as well as its political arm; 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 ...

(SDP). While serving on its board in 1920, she became the first woman elected to the Reykjavík City Council under the SDP's banner for a term to end in 1922. By 26 May 1931, she was listed fourth among the party's candidates for 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 ...

(the Icelandic parliament) under . On 1 December 1946, Jónína died.

Life and career

References

Further reading