Eliza Reid

Eliza Jean Reid (born 5 May 1976) is a Canadian-Icelandic writer and, since 2016, the First Lady of Iceland through her marriage to Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson. Before becoming First Lady she co-founded the Iceland Writers Retreat, was a freelance writer for multiple Icelandic magazines and editor of the Icelandair Stopover from 2012 to 2016.

For the late-19th- and early-20th-century Canadian advocate for women's rights, see Eliza Ann McIntosh Reid.
Eliza Reid
Reid in 2019
First Lady of Iceland
Assumed role
1 August 2016
PresidentGuðni Th. Jóhannesson
Preceded byDorrit Moussaieff
Personal details
Born
Eliza Jean Reid

(1976-05-05) 5 May 1976
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2004)​
Alma mater

Early life and education

Reid was born on 5 May 1976 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[1][2] She moved with her family to Ashton, Ontario, as a child. After moving, she attended Bell High School in Nepean, Ontario.[3] As a student at Trinity College, University of Toronto,[4] Reid became a choral scholar and served as Head of College.[5] After she moved to Iceland she sang for the Hallgrímskirkja Motet Choir.[6] After she graduated from the University of Toronto[7] with a bachelor's degree in international relations, she went to St Antony's College, Oxford University, to complete an MA degree in modern history.[8]

Career
Icelandic president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson on state visit in Stockholm in Sweden together with Reid in 2018

Reid ran the summer student volunteer program at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children in 1998, and volunteered for the Red Cross in Iceland. Reid later worked in sales from 1999 to 2003 and in marketing until 2004.[6]

After her move to Iceland in 2003, Reid became a freelance writer for multiple Icelandic publications. She wrote for The Reykjavík Grapevine and Iceland Review from 2005 to 2008 and became an editor for Icelandair Stopover in 2012. She co-founded the Iceland Writers Retreat in 2014, an event which has garnered international acclaim.[9]

She served on the jury of the 2018 British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Eliza has been nominated for 'Person of the Year' by multiple Icelandic media outlets.[10][11]

In October 2020 her book Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World was announced, and has been published by Sourcebooks in the US and Simon & Schuster in Canada in 2022. [12][13] The book was well-received[14][15] and gained endorsements from numerous high-profile authors,[16] as well as from Hillary Clinton, and became a national bestseller in Canada.[17]

Causes

She is patron of several organizations in Iceland, including the United Nations Association Iceland and is also a Goodwill Ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages Iceland. In September 2017, Reid visited the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan at the invitation of UN Women.[18] On March 23, 2019 she accepted an invitation to visit the Mosque in Iceland.[19]

Reid loves to travel and has made solo-trips to many countries. In 2017, she was named a United Nations Special Ambassador for Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals.[20]

She has advocated the recycling of clothing by making public appearances in clothing she purchased from local Red Cross stores.[21] Eliza has spoken on several occasions about her disdain for shopping.[22]

Feminism and gender-equality

Reid is known as a vocal proponent and advocate for women's rights and gender-parity. In 2019, she was honored in Berlin with an award on International Women's Day.[23] On June 19, 2017, during the 102nd anniversary of women's right to vote in Iceland, Reid advocated for gender rights and acknowledged there is still much work for Iceland to do in this regard.[24] In March 2018, Reid gave a keynote speech at the Young Women Business Leaders.[25]

On 31 August 2019, Reid used her public Facebook page to respond to an opinion article by Zoe Williams in the British newspaper The Guardian, which criticized the media coverage of the spouses of global leaders attending the 2019 G7 conference, writing "I make a concerted effort not to be seen as an accessory to my husband".[26][27][28] She has also been vocal about the undefined nature of being the partner of a head of state, and the perils and opportunities of that situation.[29][30]

On 4 September 2019, Reid was the subject of political and media speculation for wearing a white pantsuit[31] to a meeting with US Vice President Michael Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence in Reykjavik, which many saw as a symbol of solidarity with other global gender parity initiatives such as #TimesUp #MeToo and modern day Women's Rights and Suffragettes movements.[32] She wore a rainbow bracelet on her wrist to the Pence meeting as well, which has been seen as a show of solidarity with the LGBTQA community.[33] The President of Iceland wore a bracelet to the same meeting and has worn the bracelet to meetings with Vladimir Putin.

In October 2021, Reid directed attention to the marginalizing practices of the media, after they left her name off of a photo credit after the visit to Iceland by the Crown Prince of Denmark,[34] asking "do women exist?"

Patronages
  • Alzheimer's Society
  • Eyrarrosin, an annual award for outstanding cultural projects in Iceland’s rural regions
  • Ferskir Vindar art exhibition
  • Pieta House for suicide- and self-harm prevention
  • Society of Lung Patients
  • SOS Children's Villages Iceland (Goodwill Ambassador)
  • United Nations Association Iceland
  • United Nations Special Ambassador for Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals

Personal life

In 2004, Reid married historian Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, who became President of Iceland in 2016. The couple have four children together.[35] She is the sister of Canadian writer Iain Reid.[36]

Honours

Icelandic honours

Foreign honours

References
  1. "Guðni er yngsti forseti Íslandssögunnar". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 16 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  2. "Ottawa-born Eliza Reid becomes Iceland's first lady". CBC News. 26 June 2016.
  3. Harford, Evelyn (26 June 2016). "Iceland's new first lady grew up on a hobby farm near Ashton". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  4. "Iceland elects new president, and gets a Canadian first lady | The Star". thestar.com. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  5. "She the North – Trinity Magazine". Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  6. "First Lady Eliza Reid". President of Iceland. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  7. Daubs, Katie (26 June 2016). "Iceland elects new president, and gets a Canadian first lady". The Star.
  8. "Alumni Updates - MT13 | St Antony's College". www.sant.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  9. Oakes-Ash, Rachael (8 September 2014). "The world's best writers' retreats". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  10. "Þau eru tilnefnd sem Maður ársins 2019 - Vísir". visir.is. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  11. davidrg (20 December 2019). "Hver er manneskja ársins 2019?". RÚV. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  12. "From Iceland — Eliza Reid Writing Book About Icelandic Women". The Reykjavik Grapevine. 30 October 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  13. "Welcoming Eliza Reid to Transatlantic & Deal News!". 29 October 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  14. "11 New Books We Recommend This Week". The New York Times. 10 March 2022. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  15. Leive, Cindi (8 February 2022). "What Makes Iceland So Great? Ask Its First Lady". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  16. Dundas, Deborah (7 March 2022). "What to read for International Women's Day". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  17. "The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending Feb. 9, 2022". The Toronto Star. 9 February 2022. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  18. "Iceland's First Lady visits refugee camp in Jordan". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  19. Ólafsdóttir, Alma Mjöll (27 March 2019). "Eliza Reid forsetafrú segir sjálfsagt að sýna íslömskum vinum samstöðu". Stundin. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  20. "UNWTO appoints First Lady of Iceland as Special Ambassador for Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals | World Tourism Organization UNWTO". www2.unwto.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  21. Coleman, Alistair (28 February 2018). "Icelandic first lady's charity shop chic". BBC Elsewhere. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  22. "Föt eru ekki áhugamál Elizu". www.mbl.is. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  23. "Eliza Reid heiðruð í Berlín". www.mbl.is. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  24. "First Lady Discusses Gender Equality". Iceland Review. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  25. bjorgm (20 June 2017). "Allar konur hafa lent í hrútskýringu". RÚV. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  26. Williams, Zoe (28 August 2019). "The G7 was the final straw – world leaders' wives should refuse to travel with their spouses". The Guardian. London.
  27. ""I Am Not My Husband's Handbag:" Iceland's First Lady". Iceland Review. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  28. Reid, Eliza (31 August 2019). "(Facebook post)". Facebook.
  29. Reid, Eliza (1 October 2019). "Opinion | I'm a First Lady, and It's an Incredibly Weird Job". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  30. Pulling Back the Curtain: Life as a First Lady | Eliza Reid | TEDxBeaconStreet, retrieved 10 January 2020
  31. "Colors Speak Loudly during Pence's Visit". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  32. AnOther (4 January 2019). "How Wearing White Became a Symbol of Female Solidarity". AnOther. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  33. Walker, Amy (5 September 2019). "Pride flags greet Mike Pence on arrival in Iceland". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  34. "Iceland's First Lady Asks: Do Women Exist?". Iceland Review. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  35. Boesveld, Sarah (28 June 2016). "The new first lady of Iceland is Canadian — and she's awesome". Chatelaine. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  36. Patch, Nick (8 August 2018). "Iain Reid Is Canada's Next Big Author". Vice. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  37. "image". x.cdn-expressen.se.
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