Seawomen of Iceland

"Sailing on the eloquent prose of Willson’s research on Icelandic seawomen is the definition of experiencing the pleasure of reading a good ethnography. The book shows how deep curiosity and small questions lead us to large-scale insights. . . . This is a book that everyone with an interest in ethnography should read regardless of the kind of anthropology or social science they are engaged with."

"The seawomen’s tales are full of their love of the sea and pride in their strength and achievements, and Willson’s sense of humor and enthusiasm for the sea and the seawomen shine through her very accessible writing."

"A wonderfully detailed and lovingly crafted study of Icelandic women at sea through the ages. Willson . . . explore[s] not only why so many women fished and participated in maritime labour, especially in the past, but also to ask why this knowledge remains hidden and marginalized.NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research"

"What if a certain working demographic had disappeared from memory? . . . Willson is repeatedly told that women do not work at sea—except that archives and real lives attest that women actually do. . . . Seawomen of Iceland is about tough work and tougher weather, about fishing through changing socioeconomic currents, and about the subtle—and not-so-subtle—roles gender plays in working lives."

"This book is an interesting read and difficult to put down. Willson’s writing and storytelling is engaging and stirring."

"[A]n engaging, many-sided and well-written exploration of the seawomen of Iceland throughout the centuries. Willson truly has succeeded in her aim to rescue these women from national oblivion and the book is, therefore, an important contribution to the history of women in the maritime sector and maritime gender history in general."

"this book is particularly valuable because it explains the specifically icelandic aspects of these seawomen’s histories... it will be an exemplary text in the study of women’s maritime pasts for decades to come... the book offers a voyage that many people, like me, will want to repeat just for the pleasure of traveling with Margaret Willson."

"Margaret Willson’s ethnographic research reveals that despite its claims of being a society that promotes gender equality, and despite centuries-old laws dictating equal pay for both genders, Iceland does, in fact, have a significant amount of gender inequality at its core. As an island nation with few agricultural resources inland, Iceland relies heavily on the fishing industry not only for its own economic stability, but also for the very survival of its people. Willson, a former fisherwoman herself, begins research for this book in an attempt to discover why, in a country surrounded by the ocean, females are almost completely unrepresented in the lore of the nation’s substantial seafaring tradition. What she uncovers is a rich but submerged oral history, laden with tales of successful, strong, brave, determined seawomen who have ultimately been “erased” from existence by their own society. Her objective is to write them back in."

"[S]tudies concerning maritime women are still few and far between, which makes Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge by Margaret Willson a valuable contribution to the small but growing number of books in this category."

"This beautifully crafted saga about women at sea is framed as a mystery: not only why so many Icelandic women fished in the past and today, with clues found in harsh rural choices and wage equality at sea, but also why this story is not well know. Willson's findings are hugely important to both maritime and gender studies."

"Contributes a new and fresh understanding of Icelandic fishing culture. This is a captivating read due to the breadth of knowledge the author conveys through her personal style."

"Willson insightfully uses Iceland to reflect larger global social and economic transformations, showing with passion and respect how the story of Iceland’s seawomen is interwoven with the fabric of the nation’s history. Beautifully written and empirically rich, this ethnography sheds light on how processes of modernization and neoliberalization resulted in women’s systematic exclusion from production and power. Ultimately, however, Seawomen of Iceland reveals not only struggles of poverty and inequality, but also a newly told story of empowerment."

"Willson shows that contrary to dominant conceptions in Iceland, women have gone to sea, and she explains how the ideas regarding their participation have changed. This book is a very important contribution to the knowledge of maritime life in Iceland. With her vivid stories Willson brings Icelandic seawomen to life."

"Seawomen of Iceland is a fabulous book, part memoir, part ethnography. Too often the presence of women at sea has been treated as an exception to be explained, but in this book the history and reality of seawomen is treated as fact and the stories follow from that. It’s about time!"