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It's time for women to run for office

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    I feel incredibly lucky
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    to be from a country
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    that's generally considered
    to be the best place in the world
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    to be a woman.
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    In 1975, when I was seven years old,
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    women in Iceland went on a strike.
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    They did no work that day,
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    whether they held professional jobs
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    or had the work of the home.
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    They marched into
    the center of Reykjavík --
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    90 percent of women participated --
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    and peacefully and in solidarity
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    asked for equality.
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    Nothing worked in Iceland that day,
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    because nothing works
    when women are not at work.
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    (Applause)
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    Five years later,
    Icelanders had the courage
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    to be the first country in the world
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    to democratically elect a woman
    as their president.
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    I will never forget this day,
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    that President Vigdís,
    as we know her by her first name,
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    stepped out on the balcony
    of her own home,
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    a single mom with her daughter
    by her side as she had won.
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    (Applause)
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    This woman was an incredible role model
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    for me and everyone
    growing up at that time,
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    including boys.
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    She frequently shares the story
    of how a young boy approached her
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    after a couple of terms in office
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    and asked, "Can boys
    really grow up to be president?"
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    (Laughter)
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    Role models really matter,
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    but even with such strong role models
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    who I am so grateful for,
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    when I was encouraged
    to run for president,
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    my first reaction was,
    "Who am I to run for president?
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    Who am I to be president?"
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    It turns out that women
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    are less likely
    to consider running than men.
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    So a study done in the US in 2011
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    showed that 62 percent of men
    had considered running for office,
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    but 45 percent of women.
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    That's gap of 16 percentage points,
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    and it's the same gap
    that existed a decade earlier.
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    And it really is a shame,
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    because I am so convinced that the world
    is in real need for women leaders
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    and more principle-based leadership
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    in general.
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    So my decision to run
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    ultimately came down to the fact
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    that I felt
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    that I had to do my bit,
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    even if I had no political experience,
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    to step up and try to be part
    of creating the world
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    that will make sense and be sustainable
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    for our kids,
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    and a world where we truly allow
    both our boys and girls
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    to be all they can be.
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    And it was the journey of my life.
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    It was amazing.
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    The journey started with potentially
    as many as 20 candidates.
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    It boiled down to
    nine candidates qualifying,
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    and ultimately the race
    came down to four of us,
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    three men and me.
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    (Applause)
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    But that's not all the drama yet.
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    You may think you have drama in the US,
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    but I can --
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    (Laughter)
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    I can assure you
    we had our own drama in Iceland.
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    So our sitting president of 20 years
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    announced initially
    that he was not going to run,
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    which is probably what gave rise
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    to so many candidates considering running.
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    Then later he changed his mind
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    when our prime minister resigned
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    following the infamous Panama Papers
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    that implicated him and his family.
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    And there was a popular
    protest in Iceland,
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    so the sitting president thought
    they needed a trusted leader.
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    A few days later, relations
    to his wife and her family's companies
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    were also discovered in the Panama Papers,
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    and so he withdrew from the race again.
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    Before doing so, he said he was doing that
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    because now there were two qualified men
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    who he felt could fill his shoes
    running for office.
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    So on May 9, 45 days before election day,
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    it was not looking too good for me.
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    I did not even make the graph
    in the newspaper.
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    The polls had me at 1 percent,
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    but that was still the highest
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    that any woman announcing
    her candidacy had earned.
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    So it would be an understatement
    to say that I had to work extremely hard
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    to get my seat at the table
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    and access to television,
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    because the network decided
    that they would only include
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    those with 2.5 percent
    or more in the polls
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    in the first TV debate.
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    I found out on the afternoon
    of the first TV debate
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    that I would participate
    along with the three men,
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    and I found out on live TV
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    that I came in at exactly 2.5 percent
    on the day of the first TV debate.
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    (Applause)
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    So, challenges.
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    The foremost challenges I had to face
    and overcome on this journey
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    had to do with media, muscle and money.
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    Let's start with media.
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    There are those who say
    gender doesn't matter
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    when it comes to media and politics.
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    I can't say that I agree.
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    It proved harder for me
    to both get access and airtime in media.
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    As a matter of fact, the leading candidate
    appeared in broadcast media
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    87 times in the months
    leading up to the elections,
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    whereas I appeared 31 times.
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    And I am not saying
    media is doing this consciously.
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    I think largely this has to do
    with unconscious bias,
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    because in media,
    much like everywhere else,
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    we have both conscious
    and unconscious bias,
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    and we need to have the courage
    to talk about it if we want to change it.
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    When I finally got access to TV,
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    the first question I got was,
    "Are you going to quit?"
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    And that was a hard one.
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    But of course, with 1 percent
    to 2.5 percent in the polls,
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    maybe it's understandable.
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    But media really matters,
    and every time I appeared on TV,
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    we saw and experienced
    a rise in the polls,
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    so I know firsthand how much this matters
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    and why we have to talk about it.
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    I was the only one
    out of the final four candidates
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    that never got a front page interview.
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    I was sometimes left out of the questions
    asked of all other candidates
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    and out of coverage about the elections.
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    So I did face this,
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    but I will say this
    to compliment the Icelandic media.
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    I got few if any comments
    about my hair and pantsuit.
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    (Applause)
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    So kudos to them.
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    But there is another experience
    that's very important.
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    I ran as an independent candidate,
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    not with any political party
    or muscle behind me.
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    That lack of experience
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    and lack of access to resources
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    probably came at a cost to our campaign,
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    but it also allowed us to innovate
    and do politics differently.
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    We ran a positive campaign,
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    and we probably changed the tone
    of the election for others by doing that.
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    It may be the reason
    why I had less airtime on TV,
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    because I wanted to show
    other contenders respect.
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    When access to media
    proved to be so difficult,
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    we ran our own media.
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    I ran live Facebook sessions
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    where I took questions from voters
    on anything and responded on the spot.
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    And we put all the questions I got
    and all the answers on an open Facebook
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    because we thought
    transparency is important
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    if you want to establish trust.
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    And when reaching young voters
    proved to be challenging,
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    I became a Snapchatter.
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    I got young people
    to teach me how to do that,
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    and I used every filter on Snapchat
    during the last part of the campaign.
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    And I actually had to use a lot of humor
    and humility, as I was very bad at it.
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    But we grew the following
    amongst young people by doing that.
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    So it's possible to run
    a different type of campaign.
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    But unfortunately, one cannot talk
    about politics without mentioning money.
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    I am sad that it is that way,
    but it's true,
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    and we had less financial resources
    than the other candidates.
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    This probably was partly due to the fact
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    that I think I had a harder time
    asking for financial support.
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    And maybe I also had the ambition
    to do more with less.
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    Some would call that very womanly of me.
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    But even with one third the media,
    one third the financial resources,
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    and only an entrepreneurial team,
    but an amazing team,
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    we managed to surprise everyone
    on election night,
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    when the first numbers came in.
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    I surprised myself,
    as you may see in that photo.
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    (Laughter)
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    So the first numbers,
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    I came in neck to neck
    to the leading candidate.
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    (Cheers)
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    Well, too early,
    because I didn't quite pull that,
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    but I came in second,
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    and we went a long way
    from the one percent,
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    with nearly a third of the vote,
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    and we beat the polls
    by an unprecedented margin,
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    or 10 percentage points
    above what the last poll came in at.
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    Some people call me the real winner
    of the election because of this,
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    and there are many people
    who encouraged me to run again.
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    But what really makes me proud
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    is to know that I earned
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    proportionately higher percentage
    support from the young people,
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    and a lot of people encouraged
    my daughter to run in 2040.
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    (Applause)
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    She is 13,
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    and she had never been on TV before.
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    And on election day,
    I observed her on TV repeatedly,
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    and she was smart, she was self-confident,
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    she was sincere, and she was
    supportive of her mother.
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    This was probably
    the highlight of my campaign.
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    (Applause)
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    But there was another one.
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    These are preschool girls out on a walk,
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    and they found
    a poster of me on a bus stop,
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    and they saw the need to kiss it.
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    Audience: Aw!
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    This picture was really
    enough of a win for me.
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    What we see, we can be.
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    So screw fear and challenges.
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    (Applause)
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    It matters that women run,
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    and it's time for women to run for office,
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    be it the office of the CEO
    or the office of the president.
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    I also managed to put an impression
    on your very own "New Yorker."
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    I earned a new title,
    "A living emoji of sincerity."
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    (Cheers)
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    It is possibly my proudest title yet,
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    and the reason is
    that women too often get penalized
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    for using what I call
    their emotional capital,
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    but I know from experience
    that we become so good
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    when we do just that.
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    (Applause)
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    And we need more of that.
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    We celebrated as if we had won
    on election night,
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    because that's how we felt.
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    So you don't necessarily
    have to reach that office.
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    You just have to go for it,
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    and you, your family, your friends,
    everyone working with you,
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    if you do it well, you will grow beyond
    anything you will experience before.
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    So we had a good time,
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    and I learned a lot on this journey,
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    probably more lessons
    than I can share here
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    in the time we have today.
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    But rest assured, it was hard work.
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    I lost a lot of sleep during those months.
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    It took resilience
    and perseverance to not quit,
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    but I learned something
    that I knew before on the one percent day,
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    and that is that you can only be good
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    when you are truly, authentically
    listening to your own voice
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    and working in alignment with that.
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    As a good sister of mine sometimes says,
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    you may cheat on your intuition,
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    but your intuition never cheats on you.
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    I think it's also very important,
    and you all know this,
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    that on any journey you go on,
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    it's the team you take along.
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    It's having people around you
    who share your values, your vision,
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    but are different in every other way.
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    That's the formula for success for me,
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    and I am blessed with an amazing husband,
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    here today,
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    an incredible family --
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    (Applause)
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    and great friends,
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    and we came together
    as entrepreneurs in the political arena,
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    and pulled something off
    that everyone said would be impossible.
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    As a matter of fact,
    the leading PR expert told me
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    before I made my decision
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    that I would do well to get seven percent.
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    I appreciated his perspective,
    because he was probably right,
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    and he was basing it
    on valuable experience.
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    But on the one percent day,
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    I decided here to show him
    that he was wrong.
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    It's very important to mention this,
    because I did lose a lot of sleep,
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    and I worked hard,
    and so did the people with me.
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    We can never go the distance
    if we forget to take care of ourselves.
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    And it's two things that I think
    are very important in that,
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    in surrounding yourself with people
    and practices that nourish you,
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    but it's equally important,
    maybe even more important,
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    to have the courage
    to get rid of people and practices
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    that take away your energy,
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    including the wonderful bloggers
    and commentators.
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    I took a lot of support
    from others in doing this,
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    and I made the decision to go high
    when others went low,
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    and that's partly how I kept
    my energy going throughout all of this.
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    And when I lost my energy for a moment --
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    and I did from time to time,
    it wasn't easy --
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    I went back to why I decided to run,
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    and how I had decided to run my own race.
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    I called it a 4G campaign,
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    the G's representing the Icelandic words.
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    And the first one is called "Gagn."
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    I ran to do good,
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    to be of service,
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    and I wanted servant leadership
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    to be at the center of how I worked
    and everybody else in the campaign.
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    Second one is "Gleði," or joy.
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    I decided to enjoy the journey.
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    There was a lot to be taken
    out of the journey,
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    no matter if the destination
    was reached or not.
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    And I tried my utmost
    to inspire others to do so as well.
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    Third is "Gagnsæi."
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    I was open to any questions.
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    I kept no secrets,
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    and it was all open,
    on Facebook and websites.
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    Because I think if you're
    choosing your president,
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    you deserve answers to your questions.
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    Last but not least,
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    I don't need to explain that in this room,
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    we ran on the principle of Girlpower.
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    (Cheers)
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    I am incredibly glad
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    that I had the courage to run,
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    to risk failure but receive success
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    on so many levels.
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    I can't tell you that it was easy,
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    but I can tell you,
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    and I think my entire team
    will agree with me,
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    that it was worth it.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
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    Thank you.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
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    Pat Mitchell: I'm not letting you go yet.
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    Halla Tómasdóttir: What a great crowd.
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    PM: I can't let you go
    without saying
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    that probably everybody in the room
    is ready to move to Iceland
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    and vote for you.
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    But of course we probably
    can't vote there,
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    but one thing we can get from Iceland
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    and have always gotten is inspiration.
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    I mean, I'm old enough to remember 1975
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    when all the Icelandic women walked out,
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    and that really was a very big factor
    in launching the women's movement.
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    You made a reference to it earlier.
    I'd love to bring the picture back up
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    and just have us remember what it was like
    when a country came to a standstill.
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    And then what you may not know
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    because our American media
    did not report it,
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    the Icelandic women
    walked out again on Monday. Right?
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    HT: Yes, they did.
    PM: Can you tell us about that?
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    HT: Yes, so 41 years
    after the original strike,
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    we may be the best place
    in the world to be a woman,
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    but our work isn't done.
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    So at 2:38pm on Monday,
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    women in Iceland left work,
  • 18:18 - 18:21
    because that's when
    they had earned their day's salary.
  • 18:21 - 18:23
    (Applause)
  • 18:36 - 18:38
    What's really cool about this
  • 18:38 - 18:42
    is that young women and men participated
  • 18:42 - 18:44
    in greater numbers than before,
  • 18:44 - 18:48
    because it is time
    that we close the pay gap.
  • 18:51 - 18:54
    PM: So I'm not going to ask
    Halla to commit right now
  • 18:54 - 18:55
    to what she's doing next,
  • 18:55 - 18:58
    but I will say that you'd have
    a very large volunteer army
  • 18:58 - 19:01
    should you decide to do that again.
  • 19:01 - 19:02
    Thank you Halla.
  • 19:02 - 19:03
    HT: Thank you all.
  • 19:03 - 19:06
    (Applause)
Title:
It's time for women to run for office
Speaker:
Halla Tómasdóttir
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
19:18

English subtitles

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