For more than a decade, Iceland has been at the top of the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankings: parental leave is almost equally taken by both parents, the employment rate for women is ten points higher than that observed in the European Union… But what is the egalitarian secret of this small island?
Journalist and writer of Canadian origin, Eliza Reid, who became first lady of Iceland in 2016, when her husband, Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson, was elected president, tries to answer it in a book now published in France, The Secrets of the Sprakkar. These women who change the world (Michel Lafon, 288 pages, 19.95 euros). She paints a portrait of Icelandic women from various backgrounds, while highlighting the progress that her adopted country still has to make in this area.
Who are the “sprakkars” mentioned in your book?
Sprakkar is the plural of sprakki, an ancient Icelandic word meaning “exceptional woman”. It has now fallen into disuse, but I wanted to use it when I discovered it, for a very simple reason: there is no equivalent word in English or in most of the languages I know. On the contrary, the qualifiers used to designate women there tend to have negative connotations.
What about gender equality surprised you the most when you moved to Reykjavik?
I grew up on a farm in Canada, and lived in the UK for several years before settling on this island in my twenties. When I arrived, I worked in a small software start-up, whose workforce was very masculine. The president of the board of directors was a woman. One day I saw her breastfeeding her baby during a meeting.
No one looked away embarrassed or made awkward jokes, including the men: everyone acted as if it was absolutely natural. I then thought that it should always be so, and not only in Iceland! This memory is engraved in my memory.
Why dedicate a book to the subject today?
In my past as a journalist, I have always been sensitive to the issue of gender equality. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when our daily lives were turned upside down, I thought that coming from another continent, I was perhaps well placed, with an outside perspective, to paint a portrait of this closer society. of equality than any other.
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