Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason

Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason (14 December 1867 – 30 October 1941) was an Icelandic politician, suffragist, schoolteacher and gymnast.

Ingibjörg was born in Thingeyri, Iceland, in 1867 to Hakon Bjarnason and Johanna Kristin Þorleifsdóttir, and was one of five children.

[1] She graduated from the college in 1882 and relocated to Denmark to study gymnastics, making her the first Icelander to do so.

In 1915, when Icelandic women won the right to vote, Ingibjörg was chosen by a women's organisation to address parliament and present a celebratory speech, and was elected the head of a committee which raised funds to build a hospital, Landspítali (the National University Hospital) to commemorate the suffragists' win.

However, she faced criticism for some women for her alignment with the Conservative Party, for supporting causes such as the establishment of a home economics school, and for suggesting that Icelandic women had achieved full equality when they received the right to vote in 1915.