CGP
02-06-2009, 08:36 PM
Iceland, ravaged throughout history by volcanic eruptions and natural catastrophes, is struggling with a man-made disaster so overwhelming that the women are taking over. It is, they say here, the end of the Age of Testosterone.
Next week a newly minted left-leaning Government led by Johanna Sigurdardottir will start to tackle the tough agenda of cleaning out the old-school-chum networks that have led Iceland to the verge of bankruptcy.
Half of her Cabinet will be women; female advisers carrying briefcases move in and out of the Prime Minister's whitewashed office, a former jailhouse in the middle of Reykjavik. Two women, Birna Einarsdottir and Elin Sigfusdottir, now run the struggling and disgraced New Landsbanki and New Glitnir banks.
Everyone had expected that Iceland — so badly shocked by the collapse of its financial sector, the dashing of its dreams of wealth — would go back to basics, that the traditional dish of rams' testicles would be back on the restaurant menus rather than imported truffles.
But instead of digging out their grandmothers' recipes for home-made bread and returning to the hearth, women are stepping into the firing line. “We have to create a new sense of solidarity,” says the Social Democrat Prime Minister.
The departing Government — retreating would be more precise — put business first, people second, say the premier's counsellors. Now is the time for a shift in values.
Listening to Ms Sigurdardottir talk in her dry, schoolmistress manner, it becomes clear that the fall of the Icelandic Government was not just the first political casualty of the global downturn, but also a signal that men in suits have led the world astray.
“We are going to base our economic policies on prudence and responsibility, but we also stress social values, women's rights, equality and justice,” she says.
No one doubts that there is a gender revolution under way, and not just because Ms Sigurdardottir, 66, is the world's first openly gay Prime Minister. “If you crash the economy,” declared an irreverent Icelandic blogger, “the lesbians take over”.
She lives in a registered partnership with an author of children's books — a fact barely noted; when you live in a town as small as Reykjavik, where the Crazy Café is the only gay bar, you cannot stay in the closet for long.
Read More: Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5679378.ece)
Next week a newly minted left-leaning Government led by Johanna Sigurdardottir will start to tackle the tough agenda of cleaning out the old-school-chum networks that have led Iceland to the verge of bankruptcy.
Half of her Cabinet will be women; female advisers carrying briefcases move in and out of the Prime Minister's whitewashed office, a former jailhouse in the middle of Reykjavik. Two women, Birna Einarsdottir and Elin Sigfusdottir, now run the struggling and disgraced New Landsbanki and New Glitnir banks.
Everyone had expected that Iceland — so badly shocked by the collapse of its financial sector, the dashing of its dreams of wealth — would go back to basics, that the traditional dish of rams' testicles would be back on the restaurant menus rather than imported truffles.
But instead of digging out their grandmothers' recipes for home-made bread and returning to the hearth, women are stepping into the firing line. “We have to create a new sense of solidarity,” says the Social Democrat Prime Minister.
The departing Government — retreating would be more precise — put business first, people second, say the premier's counsellors. Now is the time for a shift in values.
Listening to Ms Sigurdardottir talk in her dry, schoolmistress manner, it becomes clear that the fall of the Icelandic Government was not just the first political casualty of the global downturn, but also a signal that men in suits have led the world astray.
“We are going to base our economic policies on prudence and responsibility, but we also stress social values, women's rights, equality and justice,” she says.
No one doubts that there is a gender revolution under way, and not just because Ms Sigurdardottir, 66, is the world's first openly gay Prime Minister. “If you crash the economy,” declared an irreverent Icelandic blogger, “the lesbians take over”.
She lives in a registered partnership with an author of children's books — a fact barely noted; when you live in a town as small as Reykjavik, where the Crazy Café is the only gay bar, you cannot stay in the closet for long.
Read More: Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5679378.ece)