Björn Reynir Halldórsson, doctoral student at the Faculty of History and Philosophy
Three women from the Women's List were elected to the Icelandic Parliament in 1983, and the movement held parliamentary seats until 1999 when the Social Democratic Alliance was formed. Björn Reynir Halldórsson, historian, is currently working on his doctoral thesis on the Women's List policy in environmental and economic issues, foreign affairs, and administration and their interplay with the movement's basic ideology on women's experiences. "I did not want to focus only on the matters that women are considered to be most interested in," says Björn who intends to reveal where the Women List's emphasis diverged from traditional leftist policies, even though they themselves had not wanted to be categories by left or right in politics.
Björn also considers whether the political agenda and the movement's emphasis were formed by the situation at that time; a period of great turbulence in Icelandic politics. He hopes that a study of Icelandic politics from the Women List's perspective will shed further light on the nature of Icelandic politics during the movements active period, and its development into the next century. This includes studying environmental issues and distribution of power, issues that were hardly mentioned again until after the economic collapse of 2008.
Björn Reynir Halldórsson
"Women struggled with their political careers within the traditional parties and the political landscape at the time; despite the rise of women's lib and historic milestones achieved by women's rights movements. It is not a coincidence that the Women's list was created at this exact point in time."
Björn says that women struggled with their political careers within the traditional parties and the political landscape at the time; despite the rise of women's lib and historic milestones achieved by women's rights movements. "It is not a coincidence that the Women's list was created at this exact point in time," says Björn who believes that women simply ran out of patience. "They started out of sheer necessity." It is also important to consider the movement's influences both domestic and international, including the Red Stockings that shaped it considerably. The Women's list differs, however, from other women's movements as they held parliamentary seats.
"I chose to study the Women's List out of sheer curiosity about its infrastructure and political agenda, with an eye to their relevance to current politics," Björn says. He also mentions that it was a pure coincidence that he started this study, however, burning enthusiasm is essential to the arduous task of doctoral studies.
Supervisor: Valur Ingimundarson, Professor at the Department of history and philosophy