Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Keywords
burnout, COVID-19 pandemic, gender empowerment, gender equality, Iceland, intensive parenting, women, ’super moms’
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Societies
Volume
15
Issue
7
First Page
1
Last Page
30
Abstract
Enabling gender equality through the empowerment of women to fully participate in modern society is one of the most critical steps toward sustainable development. However, recent UN reports indicate that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have jeopardized the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 by 2030 in many countries worldwide, including Iceland, which has consistently been ranked as a global leader in gender equality. The main objective of this qualitative study is to examine the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring women’s lived experiences during the crisis and its aftermath across the primary domains of gender equality—personal and social. The study is based on 72 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in the Northeastern Region of Iceland (Norðurland eystra) in 2022–2023, utilizing both strength-based and deficit analyses. The findings from the study indicate that, despite high government gender equality standards and support programs, as well as the considerable resilience demonstrated by women during the pandemic crisis, women in Iceland continue to encounter significant constraints to empowerment in achieving genuine gender equality within the personal and social domains. The study outcomes suggest that the further integration of a gender-responsive approach into policy development is crucial for the implementation of more comprehensive, nuanced, and locally adaptive gender equality measures. Advancing such policies will not only strengthen Iceland’s position as a global leader in gender equality but also contribute to its long-term social sustainability.
Department
Department of Geography
Department
ArctiCenter
Original Publication Date
7-8-2025
Object Description
1 PDF File
DOI of published version
10.3390/soc15070191
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Copyright
©2025 The Author(s)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Rozanova-Smith, Marya; Oddsdóttir, Embla Eir; and Petrov, Andrey N., "‘They Say There’s More Equality…’: Women’s Perspectives on Progress and Setbacks in Gender Equality in Northern Iceland During Times of Crisis" (2025). Faculty Publications. 6839.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/6839
Comments
First published in Societies, v15 i7, published by MDPI. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15070191