“We‘re first and foremost upset because of what‘s happened, after experiencing the feminist waves of recent years and decades, when the government disbands due to sexual violence- and secrecy, we get an election campaign that‘s based entirely on traditional androcentric terms that we‘re not okay with. Saturday‘s result was an obvious byproduct of this situation. This needs to be changed. The parties need to take feminism seriously if we are to change anything in this society.”
Former city councillor Sóley Tómasdóttir told RÚV last night that equal rights affairs have taken a huge blow, following last Saturday‘s general elections. The members of the Icelandic parliament now consist of 39 men and 24 women, far from the result last year when it had 30 women and 33 men.
Due to this, Sóley called together a meeting attended by over two-hundred women to discuss the situation. Asked whether a possible female party was in the pipeline, Sóley claimed that wasn‘t out of the question. “It‘s among a number of paths we can take and it‘s clear that the current situation is unacceptable. Politics need to be better for women and feminism in Iceland.”
This wouldn‘t be the first time a female party would appear in Icelandic politics. The Women‘s List (Kvennalistinn) took part in national politics from 1983 to 1999, when half of the list merged into the Social Democratic Alliance and the other half into the Left-Green Movement. It held three seats in 1983-87, six seats in 1987-91, five seats in 1991-95 and three in 1995-99.
