Iceland's Lesbian Prime Minister Makes Forbes' List of Most Powerful Women

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-25 17:02:00 UTC
Topics:

Johanna Sigurdardottir

Forbes is out with their annual list of the most powerful women in the world.  There's Angela Merkel.  Oprah Winfrey.  Michelle Batchelet.  Hillary Clinton.  Nancy Pelosi.  Oh, and there's also Iceland's openly lesbian Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir.

Why did Johanna Sigurdardottir make the list?  Well, sure, she's the first openly LGBT head of state in the modern political era.  But that's hardly the reason why.  Turns out it's because she's helping steer Iceland out of a near total financial collapse.  And if consumer confidence among Iceland citizens is any indication, then perhaps Sigurdardottir's work is bearing fruit.  (Or, more geographically appropriate, yielding Skyr.  Mmm!)

According to Forbes, she's on the list because she's been working vigorously to fix Iceland's broken banking system, and because she promoted early entry into the European Union as a means of ending the economic headlock that her country found itself in.  Oh, and there's also the fact that she oversees the world's oldest parliament.

But we like her so much because she broke through the global glass ceiling that used to say an LGBT person couldn't become President or Prime Minister of a country.  Forbes ranks her #75 among the world's most powerful women.  We'd place her much higher.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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