Women in Power

So, now it is official: Johanna Sigurdardottir is in power as the leader of the Social Democrats in Iceland.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff5e64ee-32c3-11de-8116-00144feabdc0.html

I was at Balliol College yesterday evening having dinner. The wall is covered with male luminaries from years gone by, past masters and fellows. Balliol was the first traditional all-male college to elect a woman as fellow and tutor in 1973. But there is very little space for her portrait (if one exists), should the college decide to hang it up. Maybe the men decorating the wall at present could be moved a little closer together to make way for a woman among them.

The Times They Are A-Changing

Today is a day for the history books.

The world is about to get its first openly gay head of state.

Icelend's Johanna Sigurdardottir breaks all the moulds. She is a woman. She is 66. She is a Social Democrat. She is glamourous. She is openly gay and in a civil partnership. She has two grown-up children. She is popular, having been dubbed "Saint Johanna" - according to a report on page three of today's Independent - and hailed as an "unexpected but brilliant" choice to take her party's centre stage.

This is one progression to have emerged out of the global economic crisis.