Top photo: Vigdís Finnbogadottir – First female Head-of-State ever, 1980 Iceland.
Recently, and for more than several years now, Iceland has been rated the best place in the world to live.
A major reason for that is the leadership of women. In 1975 90% of Icelandic women went on strike to make their case for inclusion. It worked. In 1980 Iceland lead the world by choosing the very first democratically elected female president. That was only the beginning. Today’s Prime Minister is Katrín Jakobsdóttir and just under half of the country’s parliament is female. Companies with over 50 employees require at least 40% of their board members be women. Likewise, many business leaders and CEOs are women. More remarkably, after the global bank crisis of 2008, unlike in the USA, those responsible for the collapse of their financial institutions, were swiftly tried and jailed. (36 bankers collectively to serve 96 years of prison time.)
In no small measure, Iceland’s overall happiness — why the country works so well — is that so many women have key leaderships positions and are an essential part of virtually all decisions. It is a compelling example of why it is so important to empower and include women in making decisions with a broad impact on the country.
As a creativity and innovation professional I have witnessed first-hand that a diversity of talents, skills, perspectives, career roles, and culture, among other things, make for more robust creative problem solving teams. This also drives greater variety and quality of the creative output. Imagination is maximized. What Iceland demonstrates is that gender is a key part of the diversity equation as well. Gender studies on creativity have shown the men and women tend to think differently, which adds another key ingredient to the special alchemy essential to developing breakthrough ideas and innovative products, services, and solutions of every kind.
It is clearly past time to change our policies and at long last deconstruct the proverbial “glass ceiling”.
Oh, and it’s also past time for me to book a long-desired trip to Iceland.
Jacinda Ardern — New Zealand Prime Minister