” I am a plumber’s daughter. Maybe I’ll tell you that first, and I never thought my father knew what I was doing, honestly. So it’s quite surprising to hear that he did, mostly because he was an entrepreneur and worked around the clock, and that’s the way it was back in Iceland in those days. And actually, what he worked on was to put geothermal energy into buildings in the 1970s which, if you think about it, was quite pioneering for Iceland. We were very much first in sustainable energy for all of our housing. One of the two things I frequently speak about geothermal excellence and gender equality excellence from Iceland.
But dear, Soroptimist sisters, it is such an honour for me to be with you today. I always prioritise the opportunity to be with women who are trying to change the world, such as yourselves, and I trust that this will be not just a joyful meeting, which I heard was last night, but also an impactful one, because we need to make impact these days. Your organisation has in its name, my favourite word, “optimism”, and your mission to advocate for human rights and gender equality is one I share with you sincerely.
Halla Tómasdóttir (President of Iceland) & Hafdís Karlsdóttir (SIE President 2024-2025)
The world is facing so many challenges now, I dare to even say that this may be the most challenging time in our lifetimes. Our planet is in a precarious state, scientists have discovered that of the nine boundaries that keep our shared home, the planet, in balance, we have reached or surpassed six of them. It’s like living in a house with nine pillars and only three are holding it up.
Inequality within and between societies has also reached unsustainable levels, we are seeing rollbacks in hard earned women’s rights, gay rights, human rights and journalistic and civic freedoms. Mis and disinformation is wreaking havoc on our democracies, and we are at war in as many as 50 places all over the world.
Top that up with the artificial intelligence revolution that holds the promise of solving some of the challenges we see, but without principles, may very well cause more of them. All of these challenges are interdependent, and all of them hit women and the young the hardest. It is also clear that it will be hard to solve any of them without solving all of them, because they are interdependent. This can easily feel like a daunting task, even to those of us like myself and probably all in this room who consider ourselves stubborn optimists, but please hold on to the mindset of optimism, because it is key to making what may now seem impossible possible.
Yes, at times it may feel impossible, if not overwhelming, to meet this moment with the resolve and the leadership it calls for. Like you, I have been working on making the world a better place for quite a while, a few decades, I’d say, so I know firsthand the toll it can take on those of us who choose to be the leaders and volunteers the world now needs.
In that light, I’d like to offer up some thoughts on how we keep going and stay strong in a volatile world where our mental health and that of our young people is perhaps the latest pandemic. If we want to make the world a better place, we need to start at home with our own inner world. In other words, we must first work on ourselves. How many of you know your personal purpose? Please raise your hand. Of course, in this room, more hands than normal, but not all of us. Do you have a list of principles that you use to help guide you through work and life during times that continue to provide us with wicked challenges? How many have a list of their principles and know them? Say a little fewer, but impressive, more hands than in most rooms.
Have you deliberately thought about who you are choosing to be in a world surely lacking role models and leaders who bring out the best in us? I actually think this question, “who do we choose to be?” is the most important question for the times we live in.
I believe the most important exercise, we can do if we want to be a force for good in this world, is actually to sit down and work through, and write down our personal purpose, and our personal principles and really align all of our decisions in life, in volunteering, at work, with our personal purpose and principles. I highly recommend it. I call this a “moral compass”, or a GPS system that helps us navigate the complexities of our current reality, when everything around us is crazy, the only place of peace can be within us. And this moral compass is not something that we can just think through. We have to feel it. It sits in our heart. It is essential, when we do this exercise, to drop from our heads to our hearts and dig deeply and figure out what we truly care about and how we’re going about doing something about what we truly care about. So I urge you to do this exercise, I urge you to rely on your own inner compass more than anything else, and I believe it will be your source of courage and resilience in times of need. It certainly has been for me, and I have seen many challenges and uncertainties throughout my life, as I’m sure is true for all of you.
Most of us, have had access to and benefited from quality education. This is critical, I might even go as far as to say that the single most important thing we can do to save the world is to educate girls, and provide them with the room to lead. I believe there is a real need to rethink education and leadership. There are new capacities that I know from experience one does not necessarily learn in school, but are essential to surviving and thriving in today’s world. Of course, we need to study science, technology, engineering and math, but we shouldn’t forget about the arts. Hence, I prefer to talk about STEAM rather than STEM education. But there are other capacities we need to help develop in ourselves and in others, curiosity, creativity, courage, collaboration and compassion. These are the capacities that hold the key to learning and leading in an ever-changing and challenging world. We should double down on cultivating those capacities if we want to develop more leaders to help solve challenges, and let us not forget about resilience, because uncertainty and challenges are not yet behind us.
We should also challenge the dominant thinking about leaders and others. As I firmly believe there is a leader inside each of us. The greatest work of leadership and in life is to help unlock that leader, that leader inside, in service of the greater good, as all of you here in this room choose to do.
Before I became President of Iceland, I worked as a CEO of a global nonprofit called the B Team. There, I worked alongside a group of powerful global leaders from business and civil society, and our mission was to help make business a force for good. We called ourselves a “community of courage”, and I’ve seen firsthand how courage is a team sport. It grows when we work together, and shrinks when we feel or are all alone.
Communities and movements like yours are key to driving change. The power of choosing to be in the company of those who bring out the best in us should not be underestimated. So welcome, value and cherish this community of Soroptimists, I’m always going to emphasise the latter part of that word.
One of the most valuable principles we brought into our work at the B team is the power of humility. To me, humility is the foundation of great leadership, because those who think they have all the answers will never be learners, and never open up to those who may help us find answers. One of the most impactful practices we started during my tenure as CEO of the B team, one practice I am determined to continue practising in my presidency, is intergenerational dialogue and design. For all the wicked problems we need to work on, bringing diverse partners and viewpoints and the next generation to the table is absolutely critical. The future is theirs. They have already shifted the values that we are trying to grapple with an old version of, they know what we need to do, bring them to the table as often as you can.
I have long been passionate about gender equality and balance, and that won’t change. I believe the world will be a decidedly better place if we embrace that from the boardroom to every room where we talk about and design solutions for the world. But I have increasingly become as passionate about generational equality as how can we work on a better world without those who stand to inherit it? I can’t emphasise enough how much better the conversation gets when we build bridges across genders and generations, as well as the globe. I also believe Kofi Annan was right when he said that we are never too young to lead or too old to learn.
The final advice I’d like to discuss with you is the fact that so many of us suffer from self doubt and limiting thoughts. I went through much of my own life thinking it was just me, but I have learned that most good humans know these feelings, and some know them all too well and suffer from what has been referred to as imposter syndrome, the constant doubt that we may not belong, that what we have to offer is not enough. I have battled such thoughts all my life, but I found a way to befriend my imposter when I read about the opposite syndrome, known as the hubris syndrome. The idea that you are somehow smarter, greater or more important than others. This, to me, is the cancer and global leadership today and local leadership as well, because none of us are, we are all just one important piece of a magnificent world full of wonder, and each of us matters. So to those of you who may ask from time to time, who am I to offer myself and my ideas and perspectives to a world full of so many experts and people who may seem smarter than me. I ask you to change your question and ask, who am I not to offer my thoughts and ideas to a world in great need of new ideas and leadership from all of us, the kind of leadership women typically bring to the table? Befriend your imposter, and be aware of your hubris, as everyone everywhere will work with those who see value in others and not just self. And that, my dear sisters, is the true definition of leadership.
Dear Soroptimists, I dare you to be stubborn optimists, no matter what the state of the world, I don’t believe we can fix the world’s problems with the same views and values that brought us to this moment in time, but I believe in the collective power and leadership of women to bring about new visions for a peaceful world that places the well-being of all people and our shared home, the planet at its centre.
I believe women can and must give birth to this new world. I sincerely hope you find inspiration to be part of the solution right here in Iceland, where we lead the world when it comes to closing the gender gap, yet are not anywhere near closing it. On that note, I can tell you that I am proud to be the second woman democratically elected president of this country. We were first when we courageously voted for Madame Vigdís Finnbogadóttir in 1980 and while it is the norm to celebrate the first as we should, I believe when it comes to women and leadership, we must continue to celebrate the second, the third, and so on, until we normalise women’s leadership and reach something close to gender balance in those who design and decide on what our world looks and feels like. I hope you agree.
Thank you. I hope, dear sisters, that you will use this time and think about your role. I know all of you do so much good work, and much of it is invisible, but please keep in mind as you go through your work here, as you make connections, that women hold the key to a peaceful and liveable world. I sincerely thank you for choosing to be change catalysts and volunteers for the world that we want and need, and I wish you a successful conference. Thank you. “