WOMEN IN ICELAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 91, 11 January 1919, Page 5

WOMEN IN ICELAND

■ ilie women of Iceland !nivC\ recently celebrated' the third anniversary of their enfranchisement. A largo mooting was addressed l>y, Mrs. Brief Bjarnh'jedinsdottir from tho balcony of the Parliament House in Reykjavik. Tliero, were several' 'members „ot' Parliament among, the crowd. A full report of the: speech appeared subsequently in the daily papers, says a Boston paper. Mrs. Uriet said that at the last elections for tho. Upper Jlouso in the summer of 1916, there had Iwen 2-1,000 voters on tho register. Ofythese about 12,000 were women. 'The age limit for men voters wa9 35 and for women 40, but for each election ono year, wis taken off tho women's voting age till the age was equal for both sexes. Only 12-15 women had voted out of 12,000 who were qualified as against 4G2S out of 12,000 men. At the elections by local constituencies for tho Lower House the ago for men voters was 23 and,for women '10, the latter diminishing a year for each election till equality was reached. At the autumn elections there, had been 12,177 women on tho register, of whom 3427 had voted as compared with 10,600 men' out of a possible electorate of 16,321. , Mrs.. Driot urged Icelandic women to make full use of their votes at the next election and to try to carry through; tho schcmes thoy had formulated. ' The gathering then adjourned to tho sports grounds, where a patriotic address was given by a meml>or of Parliament belonging to the Ultra-National Party. The women oMcelaml have always held a position of greater equality with men than havo tho women of most European countries, as, for instance, in their mai'riago laws. In entering various professions, they, havo received encouragement from their male collpnguos, but tho question of equnl pay for men and women needs attention in Iceland, as in other countries.