4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In 1980, the tiny country of Iceland did something no other nation had done. They elected a female head of state. BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet travels to Reykjavik to meet Vigdis Finnbogadottir. Now 87, she was president for exactly 16 years and remains the longest-serving elected female head of state of any country to date. "That’s what I have given to the girls of this country," she says: “If she can, I can.”
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0:00.0 | Hello from the BBC World Service and welcome to the latest edition of the |
0:05.0 | documentary podcast. Every week we bring you a range of stories from our |
0:09.8 | presenters and reporters across the world. |
0:13.0 | If you have the time, please rate the documentary on your podcast app and leave us a comment. |
0:18.1 | Let us know what you think. |
0:19.9 | There's a very sweet story about a little boy who saw Ronald Reagan as the president of the United States on a television and said, |
0:33.0 | Mummy, can a man be a president? |
0:37.0 | So that was the moment when children had really accepted |
0:41.0 | and it was natural never woman as president. |
0:44.0 | And when you heard that story, did you feel this was, feel proud of the... |
0:49.0 | It's a very sweet story that little boys thought that presidency was made for women. |
0:57.0 | My name is Vigiz Finn Boa Duchtiz. I'm an Icelanders and we here in Iceland have the tradition to use the first name of the father. |
1:13.0 | So we are all on first name. |
1:15.0 | I was educated in France, |
1:17.0 | I got my training there, |
1:19.0 | specialized for a while in theater history, so I became a theatre director in the city theatre, |
1:27.0 | artistic director. I had that job when I was elected the president of Iceland. |
1:35.0 | I will be a crime in us, my most foster yard, |
1:38.0 | that is a child, |
1:40.0 | leave Iceland. |
1:41.0 | Hurrah! |
1:42.0 | Hurrah! This was the moment Figuice addressed the crowd gathered beneath her balcony. |
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