Þórdís
Lóa Þórhallsdóttir, formaður FKA og forstjóri Grayline í viðtali við franska
blaðið Ulyces.
Fyrirsögnin er “How Iceland has become the coolest country in the
world”
Framtíðarsýn FKA er að hér ríki jafnvægi og fjölbreytni
öðrum löndum til fyrirmyndar. Tíðar umfjallanir eru í erlendum blöðum
og hvernig Ísland er fyrirmynd í jafnréttismálum á svo margþættan hátt.
Hér má lesa viðtalið í heild sinni
Hér má lesa úrdrátt úr viðtalinu við formann FKA, Þórdísi Lóu.
On 24 October 1975, Iceland was paralyzed. On that
day, hospitals, schools, businesses, farms and even homes are unable to
function normally.
And for good reason: 90% of women have abandoned
offices, white blouses, desks, kitchens, children and husbands, so that the
indispensable nature of their work, whether paid or not, is finally
recognized.
Thousands of them have reached downtown Reykjavík,
whose streets with colorful facades echo with their songs.” It was
an incredible event, ” recalls Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir,
president of the Businesswomen’s Association in Iceland. ”
I can still feel the crowd around me – his energy,
his power and his pride. “She was ten years old and accompanied her
mother, a singer and musician, ” one of the few women of her time to
have a full-time career .” ” Most people expected her to give
up her dreams to raise her four children, but she did not let herself do it,
” says Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir. His mother’s involvement in the
strike and demonstration, however, was no more self-evident than that of the
other women in her village. ” We had to stand up to the men
,” she says . ” They were afraid of losing control. And
they were right. But above all it was necessary to find a solution of
guard for the smallest … “Finally, women too old to demonstrate
have offered to take care of them. The others are mounted on a bus full to
burst in the direction of Reykjavík .
In the village of Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir, as
elsewhere in Iceland, a country that has long been dependent on shipping, women
have always been actively involved in economic life. As the men crossed the
oceans, they hunted, cultivated, harvested, kept accounts and repaired
dwellings. But the industrialization of the island and the development of finance
first left them out. And centuries of work had not been enough to open the
doors of power to them. In 1975, only nine women had already sat in
Parliament.Women protest in Reykjavík in 1975On returning home, Thordis Loa
Thorhallsdottir and her mother became aware of the extent of the strike and
protest movement in which they had just participated. ” In reality,
the whole country was watching television, and he could not believe his eyes or
his ears. 30,000 women marched through the streets! At that time, that
represented a considerable part of the population. The men had to admit that
the strike had had an enormous impact. Nothing has ever been like before.
“Today, almost half of the Icelandic deputies are MPs and the government
is equal. As for Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir, she is the head of one of the
most important tourism companies in the country, Gray Line . Previously, she
worked for the city of Reykjavík, taught at the university, hosted a television
show, run Pizza Hut franchises in Iceland and Finland. ” This course
did not stop me from raising two boys and one girl ,” she says.
” For the simple reason that having children is a shared responsibility
between men and women, not the exclusive responsibility of women. “This
idea is not only commonly accepted in Iceland, it is also at the heart of the
organization of work and family life.
At the birth of a child, both parents are entitled
to three months’ leave each, as well as three additional months, to be shared
as they see fit. Since the allowance is high – 80% of the wage up to a ceiling
of € 2,600 – and since the father’s leave can not be transferred to the mother,
90% of the men benefit.
For Thordis Loa Thorhallsdottir, this system of
parental leave set up in 2000 ” makes all the difference “, both at
home and at work. ” Studies show that after taking their three
months of minimum leave, fathers are much more involved in the education of
children and household chores ,” she says. ” Employers no
longer have a valid reason to favour a man to the detriment of a woman in
hiring: both will stop working at the birth of their child, both need time to
raise it and take care of him. “A parental model that should strongly
influence future generations, the only guarantor of the country’s recent social
advances.
