Women in Iceland

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The country of Iceland is known for placing very high value in women; in general, females do not struggle in the culture to gain positions of leadership as they do in many other cultures. Many women are heads in the government and of prestigious business organizations.

Women even keep their own names after marriage, because Icelanders do not use surnames (except for a small population that is now accepting the practice). Instead, they use patronyms and matronyms – which is a component of a personal name created from the name of the father or mother respectively. Because of the complications that this can cause in attempting to do family research, many other Norse cultures have moved to the use of surnames (giving the name of the husband/father to the rest of the family). However, Iceland still clings to its traditional naming system.

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