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Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Johanna sigurdardottir official portrait.jpg
24th Prime Minister of Iceland
In office
1 February 2009 – 23 May 2013
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Preceded by Geir Haarde
Succeeded by Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security
In office
24 May 2007 – 1 February 2009
Prime Minister Geir Haarde
Preceded by Magnús Stefánsson (Social Affairs)
Siv Friðleifsdóttir (Health and Social Security)
Succeeded by Ásta Ragnheiður Jóhannesdóttir
In office
8 July 1987 – 24 June 1994
Prime Minister Þorsteinn Pálsson
Steingrímur Hermannsson
Davíð Oddsson
Preceded by Alexander Stefánsson
Succeeded by Guðmundur Árni Stefánsson
Personal details
Born (1942-10-04) 4 October 1942 (age 81)
Reykjavík, Kingdom of Iceland
Political party Social Democratic Party (Before 1994)
National Awakening (1994–2000)
Social Democratic Alliance (2000–present)
Spouse(s)
Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson
(m. 1970; div. 1987)

Jónína Leósdóttir
(m. 2010)
Children 2 sons
1 stepson

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (Icelandic pronunciation: Script error: No such module "IPA".; born 4 October 1942) is an Icelandic politician, who served as prime minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. She became active in the trade union movement, serving as an officer.

Elected as an MP from 1978 to 2013, she was appointed as Iceland's Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security, serving from 1987 to 1994, and from 2007 until 2009. In 1994, when she lost a bid to head the Social Democratic Party, she raised her fist and declared "Minn tími mun koma!" ("My time will come!"), a phrase that became a popular Icelandic expression.

She became Prime Minister on 1 February 2009, Iceland's first female Prime Minister and the world's first openly LGBT head of government. Forbes listed her among the 100 most powerful women in the world.

She has been a member of the Althing (Iceland's parliament) for Reykjavík constituencies since 1978, winning re-election on eight successive occasions. In September 2012, Jóhanna announced she would not seek re-election and retired from politics as Iceland's longest serving member of Parliament.

Education and early career

Jóhanna was born in Reykjavík. Her father is Sigurður Egill Ingimundarson. She studied at the Commercial College of Iceland, a vocational high school operated by the Chamber of Commerce. After graduating with her commercial diploma in 1960, she worked as a flight attendant with Icelandic Airlines (a predecessor of Icelandair) from 1962 to 1971, and as an office manager from 1971 to 1978.

She was active in the trade union movement from early in her professional life, presiding over the Board of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association in 1966 and 1969 and over the Board of Svölurnar, Association of Former Stewardesses in 1975. She was also a member of the Board of the Commercial Workers' Union from 1976 to 1983.

Personal life

Jóhanna married Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson in 1970 and the couple had two sons named Sigurður Egill Þorvaldsson and Davíð Steinar Þorvaldsson (born 1972 and 1977).

After their divorce in 1987, she joined in a civil union with Jónína Leósdóttir (born 1954), an author and playwright, in 2002. In 2010, when same-sex marriage was legalised in Iceland, Jóhanna and Jónína changed their civil union into a marriage, thus becoming one of the first same-sex married couples in Iceland.

In 2017, she released a biography entitled Minn tími ("My Time"). The biography covers one of the most contentious periods in Icelandic history – from the financial crash of autumn 2008, through protests and emergency elections the following year, and the difficult recovery period that followed leading Iceland's first left wing government.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir para niños

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