By Ralph Angelo Ty

“My time will come!”

So declared Johanna Sigurdardottir with a raised fist when she lost her bid to head Iceland’s Social Democratic Party in 1994. Today, nineteen years later, Sigurdardottir is not only Iceland’s first female Prime Minister; she is also the first openly gay politician to head any government in the world.

Sigurdardottir, 69, was elected into office in 2009, in what many viewed as a public discontent over the then ruling Independence Party’s inefficient response to the recent global financial crisis. Iceland’s three largest banks collapsed in 2008, their debts amounting to more than six times the nation’s GDP. Now Sigurdardottir is pushing for Iceland’s membership in the European Union in an effort to boost international confidence in the country and shield it from further economic shocks.

Sigurdardottir rode to her victory with a solid reputation as Iceland’s no-nonsense and pro-poor Social Affairs Minister. She is credited for extending housing opportunities to the poor. She was also reputed to have once rejected a car and a chauffeur that came with her office and chose instead to drive her own old Mitsubishi to work.  A confidential cable released by the website Wikileaks describe her as an “energetic champion of the underprivileged,” “firm and occasionally impatient” but has “compassion and dedication to the society’s weaker members.”

The granddaughter of one of Iceland’s first female labor leaders, Sigurdardottir first worked as a flight attendant in the 1960s. She was, herself, active in labor union issues, and went on to serve several major labor organizations such as Icelandic Cabin Crew Association, Association of Former Stewardesses, and the Commercial Workers’ Union. She was first elected to the Althing, or the parliament, in 1978 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. She served as the Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security in four different cabinets from 1987 until her election in 2009.

Under Sigurdardottir’s watch, Iceland has banned strip clubs and criminalized lapdancing. She has also managed to maintain an equal number of men and women in her cabinet. Not surprisingly, Iceland topped all 134 participating countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Gender Gap Report.

In 2002, Sigurdardottir wed journalist and playwright Jonina Leosdottir. Homosexual couples have long enjoyed the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples in Iceland, but it was only in 2010 that the Althing unanimously passed a law formally legalizing gay marriage. Sigurdardottir and Leosdottir have submitted a request to have their civil union converted into a formal marriage. She has two sons from an earlier marriage.

In 2009 Forbes magazine named Sigurdardottir one of the most powerful women in the world. Last year, Time magazine also listed her as one of the top female heads of state currently in office.