Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Early life and career== Vigdís was born on 15 April 1930 in [[Reykjavík]].<ref name="icelandmonitor">{{Cite web |title=Former President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Turns 90 Today |url=https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2020/04/15/former_president_vigdis_finnbogadottir_turns_90_tod/ |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=Iceland Monitor}}</ref> Her father was a [[civil engineer]], and her mother was a nurse who headed the national nurses association.<ref name="Inga">{{Cite book |last=Snaebjornsson |first=Inga Minelgaite |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-44758-2 |title=Women Leaders in Chaotic Environments: Examinations of Leadership Using Complexity Theory |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-44758-2 |editor-last=Erçetin |editor-first=Şefika Şule |series=Lecture Notes in Social Networks |pages=35–47 |chapter="President Vigdís": The End and the Beginning of Women’s Agenda in Iceland |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44758-2 |s2cid=1414678 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{Rp|page=41}} The following year, her younger brother Þorvaldur was born; he did not survive to adulthood, as he drowned in [[Hreðavatn]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Einarsdóttir |first=Júlía Margrét |date=19 April 2020 |title="Ég missti þann förunaut sem hefði fylgt mér alla ævi" |url=https://www.ruv.is/frettir/menning-og-daegurmal/2020-04-19-eg-missti-thann-forunaut-sem-hefdi-fylgt-mer-alla-aevi/ |website=RÚV}}</ref> Vigdís enrolled at the [[University of Grenoble]] in 1949, later switching to [[Sorbonne University|the Sorbonne]].<ref name="icelandmag">{{Cite web |title=First female head of state, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, elected 35 years ago today |url=https://icelandmag.is/article/first-female-head-state-vigdis-finnbogadottir-elected-35-years-ago-today |date=June 29, 2015|access-date=2023-10-07 |website=Icelandmag |language=en}}</ref> She studied English and French literature, giving special emphasis to plays,<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=41}} and she graduated in 1953.<ref name="icelandmag" /> Vigdís was married in 1954.<ref name="icelandmag" /> The same year, she began acting,<ref name="France24">{{Cite web |date=2020-07-31 |title=Vigdis Finnbogadottir, the world's first elected female president |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20200731-vigdis-finnbogadottir-the-world-s-first-elected-female-president |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref> co-founding a theatre group. She also worked on the translation of several French plays.<ref name="icelandmonitor" /> She enrolled at the [[University of Copenhagen]] in 1957, where she studied theatre history until the following year.<ref name="icelandmag" /> She was divorced in 1963.<ref name="icelandmag" /> Vigdís participated in the anti-military rallies that took place in the 1960s and 1970s, protesting the United States military presence in Iceland.<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=41}} Vigdís adopted a daughter in 1972,<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=42}} making her the first single woman in Iceland to adopt a child.<ref name="icelandmag" /> Vigdís taught French lessons on television for [[RÚV]] beginning in 1972, making her a well known figure throughout the nation.<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=41}} In the same year, she was appointed the artistic director of the [[Reykjavík Theatre Company]].<ref name="France24" /> She became a member of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Affairs in the Nordic Countries in 1976, and the organisation's chair in 1978.<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=41}} She continued in all of these positions until she became [[President of Iceland]] in 1980.<ref name="Inga" />{{Rp|page=41}}<ref name="France24" /> Other jobs she held early in life included her work as a French teacher at several colleges, including at the [[University of Iceland]], and her work as a tour guide with the Icelandic Tourist Bureau in the summers. She eventually became the head of the Icelandic Tourist Bureau.<ref name="icelandmag" />
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
(section)
Add topic