When asked to describe Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland's longest-serving MP and first lesbian PM, her then-rival Baldvin Hannibalsson thought for a moment before concluding that she was a focused, single-minded loner. Through that lens, her campaign slogan "Minn tími mun koma!" (Icelandic for the triumphant “My time has come!”) rings right on the money.
Sigurðardóttir’s reputation as a driven political force paired nicely with her notorious compassion for citizens in need, and policies for improving their welfare. She has also been a strong leader for Iceland’s LGBTQ community, pushing for legalization of non-traditional unions as well as other equalities. She led by example in 2010, when same-sex marriages were first recognized in Iceland, by marrying her long-time partner Jónína Leósdóttir.
She worked to ban strip clubs throughout the country, stating "The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale." This, and other accomplishments, pushed Sigurðardóttir to the forefront of the gender equality movement and sent Iceland to the No. 1 spot on the World Economic Forum's annual Global Gender Gap Index.
Before she was a political powerhouse, Sigurðardóttir worked as a flight attendant in the 1970s. From there, unions drew her towards the capital, where she was elected as an MP for the Social Democrat Party in 1978. By 1995, she formed her own party, but returned to the Social Democrats five years later.
At the time of her retirement in 2012, she had served in the Althingi (Iceland’s parliament, which is also the oldest legislature in the world that is still functioning to this day) longer than anyone else. When elected Prime Minister in 2009, she was tasked with dragging Iceland out of 2008’s deep recession. In a country with more writers per capita than any other in the world (by a large margin), it only made sense that she would follow suit and publish a book. In 2017, her biography “Minn tími” (My Time) was released, documenting Iceland’s boom, bust, and recovery cycle.