Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Iceland is the world's most peaceful country according to the Global Peace Index, which
has ranked the country top of the pops every year since 2008. The GPI bases its findings
on factors such as levels of violent crime, political instability and what percentage of a
country's population is in prison.
Women in Iceland
In 2013, Iceland held the top spot (for the fifth consecutive year) in the World Economic
Forum's Global Gender Gap Index. The index measured and ranked 136 countries on one
important aspect of gender equality — the relative gaps between women and men across
four key areas: health, education, economics and politics. Iceland continues to be the coun-
try with the narrowest gender gap in the world - this means Icelandic women have greater
access to health and education, and are more politically and economically empowered than
women in other countries.
The Viking settlement of Iceland clearly demanded toughness of character, and the
sagas are full of feisty women (for example, Hallgerður Höskuldsdóttir, who declines to
save her husband's life due to a slap that he gave her years earlier). For centuries, Icelandic
women had to take care of farms and families while their male partners headed off to sea.
Women and men struggled equally through Iceland's long, dark history; modern gender
equality is a pretty recent phenomenon.
Women gained full voting rights in 1920, but it wasn't until the 1970s protest move-
ments reached Iceland that attitudes really began to change. Particularly powerful was the
'women's day off' on 24 October 1975: the country ceased to function when 90% of
Icelandic women stayed away from work and stay-at-home mums left children with their
menfolk for the day.
In 1980 Iceland became the first democracy to elect a female president, the much-loved
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. In 2009, the world's first openly gay prime minister, Jóhanna Sig-
urðardóttir, came into power. Iceland has among the highest rate of women's participation
in the labour market among OECD countries, at 78.5%.
The social care system is so good that women have few worries about the financial im-
plications of raising a child alone: maternity leave provisions are excellent, childcare is af-
fordable, there is no sense that motherhood precludes work or study, and there's no stigma
attached to unmarried mothers. The country isn't perfect - sexual violence and unequal
