-
I feel incredibly lucky
-
to be from a country
-
that's generally considered
to be the best place in the world
-
to be a woman.
-
In 1975, when I was seven years old,
-
women in Iceland went on a strike.
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They did no work that day,
-
whether they held professional jobs
-
or had the work of the home.
-
They marched into
the center of Reykjavík --
-
90 percent of women participated --
-
and peacefully and in solidarity
-
asked for equality.
-
Nothing worked in Iceland that day,
-
because nothing works
when women are not at work.
-
(Applause)
-
Five years later,
Icelanders had the courage
-
to be the first country in the world
-
to democratically elect a woman
as their president.
-
I will never forget this day,
-
that President Vigdís,
as we know her by her first name,
-
stepped out on the balcony
of her own home,
-
a single mom with her daughter
by her side as she had won.
-
(Applause)
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This woman was an incredible role model
-
for me and everyone
growing up at that time,
-
including boys.
-
She frequently shares the story
of how a young boy approached her
-
after a couple of terms in office
-
and asked, "Can boys
really grow up to be president?"
-
(Laughter)
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Role models really matter,
-
but even with such strong role models
-
who I am so grateful for,
-
when I was encouraged
to run for president,
-
my first reaction was,
"Who am I to run for president?
-
Who am I to be president?"
-
It turns out that women
-
are less likely
to consider running than men.
-
So a study done in the US in 2011
-
showed that 62 percent of men
had considered running for office,
-
but 45 percent of women.
-
That's gap of 16 percentage points,
-
and it's the same gap
that existed a decade earlier.
-
And it really is a shame,
-
because I am so convinced that the world
is in real need for women leaders
-
and more principle-based leadership
-
in general.
-
So my decision to run
-
ultimately came down to the fact
-
that I felt
-
that I had to do my bit,
-
even if I had no political experience,
-
to step up and try to be part
of creating the world
-
that will make sense and be sustainable
-
for our kids,
-
and a world where we truly allow
both our boys and girls
-
to be all they can be.
-
And it was the journey of my life.
-
It was amazing.
-
The journey started with potentially
as many as 20 candidates.
-
It boiled down to
nine candidates qualifying,
-
and ultimately the race
came down to four of us,
-
three men and me.
-
(Applause)
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But that's not all the drama yet.
-
You may think you have drama in the US,
-
but I can --
-
(Laughter) --
-
I can assure you
we had our own drama in Iceland.
-
So our sitting president of 20 years
-
announced initially
that he was not going to run,
-
which is probably what gave rise
-
to so many candidates considering running.
-
Then later he changed his mind
-
when our prime minister resigned
-
following the infamous Panama Papers
-
that implicated him and his family.
-
And there was a popular
protest in Iceland,
-
so the sitting president thought
they needed a trusted leader.
-
A few days later, relations
to his wife and her family's companies
-
were also discovered in the Panama Papers,
-
and so he withdrew from the race again.
-
Before doing so, he said he was doing that
-
because now there were two qualified men
-
who he felt could fill his shoes
running for office.
-
So on May 9, 45 days before election day,
-
it was not looking too good for me.
-
I did not even make the graph
in the newspaper.
-
The polls had me at 1 percent,
-
but that was still the highest
-
that any woman announcing
her candidacy had earned.
-
So it would be an understatement
to say that I had to work extremely hard
-
to get my seat at the table
-
and access to television,
-
because the network decided
that they would only include
-
those with 2.5 percent
or more in the polls
-
in the first TV debate.
-
I found out on the afternoon
of the first TV debate
-
that I would participate
along with the three men,
-
and I found out on live TV
-
that I came in at exactly 2.5 percent
on the day of the first TV debate.
-
(Applause)
-
So, challenges.
-
The foremost challenges I had to face
and overcome on this journey
-
had to do with media, muscle, and money.
-
Let's start with media.
-
There are those who say
gender doesn't matter
-
when it comes to media and politics.
-
I can't say that I agree.
-
It proved harder for me
to both get access and airtime in media.
-
As a matter of fact, the leading candidate
appeared in broadcast media
-
87 times in the months
leading up to the elections,
-
whereas I appeared 31 times.
-
And I am not saying
media is doing this consciously.
-
I think largely this has to do
with unconscious bias,
-
because in media,
much like everywhere else,
-
we have both conscious
and unconscious bias,
-
and we need to have the courage
to talk about it if we want to change it.
-
When I finally got access to TV,
-
the first question I got was,
"Are you going to quit?"
-
And that was a hard one.
-
But of course, with 1 percent
to 2.5 percent in the polls,
-
maybe it's understandable.
-
But media really matters,
and every time I appeared on TV,
-
we saw and experienced
a rise in the polls,
-
so I know firsthand how much this matters
-
and why we have to talk about it.
-
I was the only one
out of the final four candidates
-
that never got a front page interview.
-
I was sometimes left out of the questions
asked of all other candidates,
-
and out of coverage about the elections.
-
So I did face this,
-
but I will say this
to complement the Icelandic media.
-
I got few if any comments
about my hair and pantsuit.
-
(Applause)
-
So kudos to them.
-
But there is another experience
that's very important.
-
I ran as an independent candidate,
-
not with any political party
or muscle behind me.
-
That lack of experience
-
and lack of access to resources
-
probably came at a cost to our campaign,
-
but it also allowed us to innovate
and do politics differently.
-
We ran a positive campaign,
-
and we probably changed the tone
of the election for others by doing that.
-
It may be the reason
why I had less airtime on TV,
-
because I wanted to show
other contenders respect.
-
When access to media
proved to be so difficult,
-
we ran our own media.
-
I ran live Facebook sessions
-
where I took questions from voters
on anything and responded on the spot,
-
and we put all the questions I got
and all the answers on an open Facebook
-
because we thought
transparency is important
-
if you want to establish trust.
-
And when reaching young voters
proved to be challenging,
-
I became a Snapchatter.
-
I got young people
to teach me how to do that
-
and I used every filter on Snapchat
during the last part of the campaign,
-
and I actually had to use a lot of humor
and humility as I was very bad at it.
-
But we grew the following
amongst young people by doing that.
-
So it's possible to run
a different type of campaign.
-
But unfortunately, one cannot talk
about politics without mentioning money.
-
I am sad that it is that way,
but it's true,
-
and we had less financial resources
than the other candidates.
-
This probably was partly due to the fact
-
that I think I had a harder time
asking for financial support,
-
and maybe I also had the ambition
to do more with less.
-
Some would call that very womanly of me.
-
But even with one third the media,
one third the financial resources,
-
and only an entrepreneurial team,
but an amazing team,
-
we managed to surprise everyone
on election night,
-
when the first numbers came in.
-
I surprised myself,
as you may see in that photo.
-
(Laughter)
-
So the first numbers,
-
I came in neck to neck
to the leading candidate.
-
(Cheers)
-
Well, too early,
because I didn't quite pull that,
-
but I came in second,
-
and we went a long way
from the one percent,
-
with nearly a third of the vote,
-
and we beat the polls
by an unprecedented margin,
-
or 10 percentage points
above what the last poll came in at.
-
Some people call me the real winner
of the election because of this,
-
and there are many people
who encouraged me to run again.
-
But what really makes me proud
-
is to know that I earned
-
proportionately higher percentage
support from the young people
-
and a lot of people encouraged
my daughter to run in 2040.
-
(Applause)
-
She is 13,
-
and she had never been on TV before,
-
and on election day,
I observed her on TV repeatedly,
-
and she was smart, she was self-confident,
-
she was sincere, and she was
supportive of her mother.
-
This was probably
the highlight of my campaign.
-
(Applause)
-
But there was another one.
-
These are preschool girls out on a walk,
-
and they found
a poster of me on a bus stop,
-
and they saw the need to kiss it.
-
Audience: Aw!
-
This picture was really
enough of a win for me.
-
What we see, we can be.
-
So screw fear and challenges.
-
(Applause)
-
It matters that women run,
-
and it's time for women to run for office,
-
be it the office of the CEO
or the office of the president.
-
I also managed to put an impression
on your very own "New Yorker."
-
I earned a new title,
"A living emoji of sincerity."
-
(Cheers)
-
It is possibly my proudest title yet,
-
and the reason is
that women too often get penalized
-
for using what I call
their emotional capital,
-
but I know from experience
that we become so good
-
when we do just that.
-
(Applause)
-
And we need more of that.
-
We celebrated as if we had won
on election night,
-
because that's how we felt.
-
So you don't necessarily
have to reach that office.
-
You just have to go for it,
-
and you, your family, your friends,
everyone working with you,
-
if you do it well, you will grow beyond
anything you will experience before.
-
So we had a good time,
-
and I learned a lot on this journey,
-
probably more lessons
than I can share here
-
in the time we have today.
-
But rest assured, it was hard work.
-
I lost a lot of sleep during those months.
-
It took resilience
and perseverance to not quit,
-
but I learned something
that I knew before on the one percent day,
-
and that is that you can only be good
-
when you are truly, authentically
listening to your own voice
-
and working in alignment with that.
-
As a good sister of mine sometimes says,
-
you may cheat on your intuition,
-
but your intuition never cheats on you.
-
I think it's also very important,
and you all know this,
-
that on any journey you go on,
-
it's the team you take along.
-
It's having people around you
who share your values, your vision,
-
but are different in every other way.
-
That's the formula for success for me,
-
and I am blessed with an amazing husband
-
here today,
-
an incredible family --
-
(Applause)
-
and great friends,
-
and we came together
as entrepreneurs in the political arena,
-
and pulled something off
that everyone said would be impossible.
-
As a matter of fact,
the leading PR expert told me
-
before I made my decision
-
that I would do well to get seven percent.
-
I appreciated his perspective,
because he was probably right,
-
and he was basing it
on valuable experience,
-
but on the one percent day,
-
I decided here to show him
that he was wrong.
-
It's very important to mention this,
because I did lose a lot of sleep,
-
and I worked hard,
and so did the people with me.
-
We can never go the distance
if we forget to take care of ourselves.
-
And it's two things that I think
are very important in that,
-
in surrounding yourself with people
and practices that nourish you,
-
but it's equally important,
maybe even more important,
-
to have the courage
to get rid of people and practices
-
that take away your energy,
-
including the wonderful bloggers
and commentators.
-
I took a lot of support
from others in doing this,
-
and I made the decision to go high
when others went low,
-
and that's partly how I kept
my energy going throughout all of this,
-
and when I lost my energy for a moment --
-
and I did from time to time,
it wasn't easy --
-
I went back to why I decided to run,
-
and how I had decided to run my own race.
-
I called it a 4G campaign,
-
the G's representing the Icelandic words.
-
And the first one is called "Gagn."
-
I ran to do good,
-
to be of service,
-
and I wanted servant leadership
-
to be at the center of how I worked
and everybody else in the campaign.
-
Second one is "Gledi," or joy.
-
I decided to enjoy the journey.
-
There was a lot to be taken
out of the journey,
-
no matter if the destination
was reached or not.
-
And I tried my utmost
to inspire others to do so as well.
-
Third is "Gagnsæi."
-
I was open to any questions.
-
I kept no secrets,
-
and it was all open,
on Facebook and websites,
-
because I think if you're
choosing your president,
-
you deserve answers to your questions.
-
Last but not least,
-
I don't need to explain that in this room,
-
we ran on the principle of Girlpower.
-
(Cheers)
-
I am incredibly glad
-
that I had the courage to run,
-
to risk failure but receive success
-
on so many levels.
-
I can't tell you that it was easy,
-
but I can tell you,
-
and I think my entire team
will agree with me,
-
that it was worth it.
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)
-
Thank you.
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)
-
Moderator: I'm not letting you go yet.
-
Halla Tómasdóttir: What a great crowd.
-
Moderator: I can't let you go
without saying
-
that probably everybody in the room
is ready to move to Iceland
-
and vote for you.
-
But of course we probably
can't vote there,
-
but one thing we can get from Iceland
-
and have always gotten is inspiration.
-
I mean, I'm old enough to remember 1975
-
when all the Icelandic women walked out,
-
and that really was a very big factor
in launching the women's movement.
-
You made a reference to it earlier.
I'd love to bring the picture back up
-
and just have us remember what it was like
when a country came to a standstill,
-
and then what you may not know
-
because our American media
did not report it,
-
the Icelandic women
walked out again on Monday. Right?
-
HT: Yes, they did.
Moderator: Can you tell us about that?
-
HT: Yes, so 41 years
after the original strike,
-
we may be the best place
in the world to be a woman,
-
but our work isn't done.
-
So at 2:38 on Monday,
-
women in Iceland left work,
-
because that's when
they had earned their day's salary.
-
(Applause)
-
What's really cool about this
-
is that young women and men participated
-
in greater numbers than before,
-
because it is time
that we close the pay gap.
-
Moderator: So I'm not going to ask
Halla to commit right now
-
to what she's doing next,
-
but I will say that you'd have
a very large volunteer army
-
should you decide to do that again.
-
Thank you Halla.
-
HT: Thank you all.
-
(Applause)