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I feel incredibly lucky

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to be from a country

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that's generally considered to be
the best place in the world

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to be a woman.

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In 1975, when I was seven years old,

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women in Iceland went on a strike.

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They did no work that day,

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whether they held professional jobs

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or had the work of the home.

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They marched into
the center of Reykjavík --

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90 percent of women participated --

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and peacefully and in solidarity

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asked for equality.

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Nothing worked in Iceland that day,

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because nothing works
when women are not at work.

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(Applause)

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Five years later, Icelanders
had the courage

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to be the first country in the world

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to democratically elect a woman

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as their President.

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I will never forget this day,

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that President Vigdís,
as we know her by her first name,

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stepped out on the balcony
of her own home,

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a single mom with her daughter
by her side as she had won.

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(Applause)

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This woman was an incredible role model
for me and everyone growing up

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at that time, including boys.

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She frequently shares the story
of how a young boy approached her

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after a couple of terms in office

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and asked, "Can boys really
grow up to be President?"

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(Laughter)

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Role models really matter,

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but even with such strong role models

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who I am so grateful for,

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when I was encouraged
to run for President,

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my first reaction was,
"Who am I to run for President?

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Who am I to be President?"

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It turns out that women

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are less likely to consider
running than men.

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So a study done in the US in 2011

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showed that 62 percent of men
had considered running for office,

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but 45 percent of women.

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That's gap of 16 percentage points,

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and it's the same gap that existed
a decade earlier.

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And it really is a shame,

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because I am so convinced that the world
is in real need for women leaders

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and more principle-based leadership

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in general.

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So my decision to run

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ultimately came down to the fact

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that I felt

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that I had to do my bit,

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even if I had no political experience,

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to step up and try to be part
of creating the world

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that will make sense and be sustainable

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for our kids,

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and a world where we truly allow
both our boys and girls

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to be all they can be.

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And it was the journey of my life.

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It was amazing.

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The journey started with potentially
as many as 20 candidates.

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It boiled down to
nine candidates qualifying,

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and ultimately the race
came down to four of us,

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three men and me.

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(Applause)

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But that's not all the drama yet.

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You may think you have drama in the US,

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but I --

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(Laughter) --

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I can assure you we had
our own drama in Iceland.

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So our sitting President of 20 years

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announced initially
that he was not going to run,

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which is probably what gave rise
to so many candidates

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considering running.

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Then later he changed his mind

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when our Prime Minister resigned

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following the infamous Panama Papers

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that implicated him and his family.

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And there was
a popular protest in Iceland,

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so the sitting President thought
they needed a trusted leader.

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A few days later, relations
to his wife and her family's companies

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were also discovered in the Panama Papers,

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and so he withdrew from the race again.

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Before doing so, he said he was doing that

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because now there were two qualified men

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who he felt could fill his shoes
running for office.

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So on May 9, 45 days before election day,

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it was not looking too good for me.

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I did not even make the graph
in the newspaper.

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The polls had me at 1 percent,

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but that was still the highest that any
woman announcing her candidacy had earned.

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So it would be an understatement to say
that I had to work extremely hard

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to get my seat at the table

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and access to television,

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because the network decided that they
would only include those with 2.5 percent

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or more in the polls
in the first TV debate.

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I found out on the afternoon
of the first TV debate

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that I would participate

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along with the three men,

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and I found out on live TV that I came in

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at exactly 2.5 percent on the day
of the first TV debate.

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(Applause)

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So, challenges.

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The foremost challenges I had to face
and overcome on this journey

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had to do with media, muscle, and money.

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Let's start with media.

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There are those who say
gender doesn't matter

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when it comes to media and politics.

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I can't say that I agree.

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It proved harder for me to both
get access and airtime in media.

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As a matter of fact, the leading candidate
appeared in broadcast media

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87 times in the months
leading up to the elections,

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whereas I appeared 31 times.

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And I am not saying media
is doing this consciously.

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I think largely this has to do
with unconscious bias,

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because in media,
much like everywhere else,

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we have both conscious
and unconscious bias,

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and we need to have the courage
to talk about it if we want to change it.

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When I finally got access to TV,

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the first question I got was,
"Are you going to quit?"

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And that was a hard one.

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But of course, with 1 percent
to 2.5 percent in the polls,

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maybe it's understandable.

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But media really matters,
and every time I appeared on TV,

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we saw and experienced
a rise in the polls,

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so I know firsthand how much this matters

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and why we have to talk about it.

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I was the only one out of
the final four candidates

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that never got a front page interview.

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I was sometimes left out

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of the questions asked
of all other candidates,

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and out of coverage about the elections.

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So I did face this,

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but I will say this to complement
the Icelandic media.

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I got few if any comments
about my hair and pantsuit.

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(Applause)

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So kudos to them.

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But there is another experience
that's very important.

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I ran as an independent candidate,

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not with any political party
or muscle behind me.

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That lack of experience

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and lack of access to resources
probably came at a cost

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to our campaign,

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but it also allowed us to innovate
and do politics differently.

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We ran a positive campaign,

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and we probably changed the tone
of the election for others by doing that.

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It may be the reason why I had
less airtime on TV,

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because I wanted to show
other contenders respect.

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When access to media
proved to be so difficult,

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we ran our own media.

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I ran live Facebook sessions
where I took questions from voters

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on anything and responded on the spot,

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and we put all the questions I got
and all the answers on an open Facebook

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because we thought transparency is
important if you want to establish trust.

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And when reaching young voters proved
to be challenging,

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I became a Snapchatter.

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I got young people
to teach me how to do that

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and I used every filter on Snapchat

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during the last part of the campaign,

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and I actually had to use a lot of humor

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and humility as I was very bad at it.

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But we grew the following
amongst young people by doing that.

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So it's possible to run
a different type of campaign.

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But unfortunately, one cannot talk
about politics without mentioning money.

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I am sad that it is that way,
but it's true,

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and we had less financial resources
than the other candidates.

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This probably was partly due
to the fact that I think I had

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a harder time asking
for financial support,

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and maybe I also had the ambition
to do more with less.

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Some would call that very womanly of me.

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But even with one third the media,
one third the financial resources,

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and only an entrepreneurial team,
but an amazing team,

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we managed to surprise everyone
on election night,

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when the first numbers came in.

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I surprised myself, as you
may see in that photo.

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(Laughter)

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So the first numbers,

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I came in neck to neck
to the leading candidate.

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(Cheers)

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Well, too early, because
I didn't quite pull that,

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but I came in second,

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and we went a long way
from the one percent,

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with nearly a third of the vote,

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and we beat the polls
by an unprecedented margin,

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or 10 percentage points above
what the last poll came in at.

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Some people call me the real winner
of the election because of this,

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and there are many people
who encouraged me to run again.

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But what really makes me proud

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is to know that I earned

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proportionately higher percentage
support from the young people

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and a lot of people encouraged
my daughter to run in 2040.

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(Applause)

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She is 13,

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and she had never been on TV before,

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and on election day,
I observed her on TV repeatedly,

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and she was smart,

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she was self-confident,

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she was sincere, and she was
supportive of her mother.

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This was probably the highlight
of my campaign.

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(Applause)

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But there was another one.

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These are preschool girls
out on a walk,

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and they found a poster of me
on a bus stop,

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and they saw the need to kiss it.

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This picture was really
enough of a win for me.

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What we see we can be.

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So screw fear and challenges.

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(Applause)

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00:11:48,467 --> 00:11:51,245
It matters that women run,

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and it's time for women to run for office,

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be it the office of the CEO

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or the office of the President.

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I also managed to put an impression
on your very own New Yorker.

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00:12:04,532 --> 00:12:09,546
I earned a new title,
"A living emoji of sincerity."

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00:12:09,546 --> 00:12:12,933
(Cheers)

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00:12:13,097 --> 00:12:16,892
It is possibly my proudest title yet,

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and the reason is that women too often
get penalized for using what I call

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their emotional capital,

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but I know from experience
that we become so good

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when we do just that.

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(Applause)

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And we need more of that.

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We celebrated as if we had won
on election night,

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because that's how we felt.

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So you don't necessarily
have to reach that office.

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You just have to go for it,

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and you, your family, your friends,
everyone working with you,

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if you do it well, you will grow beyond
anything you will experience before.

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So we had a good time,

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and I learned a lot on this journey,

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probably more lessons
than I can share here

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in the time we have today.

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But rest assured, it was hard work.

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I lost a lot of sleep during those months.

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It took resilience and
perseverance to not quit,

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but I learned something that I knew before
on the one percent day,

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and that is that you can only be good

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when you are truly authentically
listening to your own voice

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and working in alignment with that.

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As a good sister of mine sometimes says,

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you may cheat on your intuition,

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but your intuition never cheats on you.

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I think it's also very important,
and you all know this,

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that on any journey you go on,

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it's the team you take along.

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It's having people around you
who share your values, your vision,

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but are different in every other way.

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That's the formula for success for me,

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and I am blessed with an amazing husband

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00:14:07,233 --> 00:14:08,845
here today,

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00:14:08,845 --> 00:14:11,173
an incredible family --

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00:14:11,173 --> 00:14:13,167
(Applause) --

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00:14:13,167 --> 00:14:14,911
and great friends, and we came together
as entrepreneurs in the political arena,

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00:14:14,911 --> 00:14:21,520
and pulled something off
that everyone said would be impossible.

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As a matter of fact,
the leading PR expert told me

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before I made my decision

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that I would do well to get seven percent.

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I appreciated his perspective,
because he was probably right,

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and he was basing it
on valuable experience,

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but on the one percent day,
I decided here to show him

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that he was wrong.

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It's very important to mention this,
because I did lose a lot of sleep,

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and I worked hard,
and so did the people with me.

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We can never go the distance
if we forget to take care of ourselves.

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And it's two things that I think
are very important in that,

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in surrounding yourself with
people and practices that nourish you,

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but it's equally important,
maybe even more important,

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to have the courage to get rid
of people and practices

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that take away your energy,

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including the wonderful bloggers
and commentators.

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I took a lot of support
from others in doing this,

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and I made the decision to go high
when others went low,

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and that's partly how I kept
my energy going throughout all of this,

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and when I lost my energy for a moment,
and I did from time to time,

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it wasn't easy,

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I went back to why I decided to run,

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and how I had decided to run my own race.

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I called it a 4G campaign,

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the G's representing the Icelandic words.

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And the first one is called Gagn.

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I ran to do good,

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to be of service, and I wanted
servant leadership to be

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at the center of how I worked
and everybody else in the campaign.

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Second in is Gledi, or joy.

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I decided to enjoy the journey.

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There was a lot to be taken
out of the journey,

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no matter if the destination
was reached or not.

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And I tried my utmost to inspire
others to do so as well.

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Third is Gagnsæi.

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I was open to any questions.
I kept no secrets,

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and it was all open,
on Facebook and websites,

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because I think if you're
choosing your President,

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you deserve answers to your questions.

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Last but not least,

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I don't need to explain that in this room,

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we ran on the principle of Girlpower.

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(Cheers)

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I am incredibly glad

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that I had the courage to run,

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to risk failure but receive success

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on so many levels.

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I can't tell you that it was easy,

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but I can tell you,

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and I think my entire team

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will agree with me,

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that it was worth it.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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What a great crowd.

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Moderator: I can't let you go
without saying

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that probably everybody in the room
is ready to move to Iceland

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and vote for you.

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But of course we probably
can't vote there,

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but one thing we can get from Iceland

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and have always gotten is inspiration.

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I mean, I'm old enough to remember 1975

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when all the Icelandic women walked out,

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and that really was a very big factor
in launching the women's movement.

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You made a reference to it earlier.
I'd love to bring the picture back up

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and just have us remember what it was like
when a country came to a standstill,

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and then what you may not know

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because our American media
did not report it,

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the Icelandic women walked out again
on Monday. Right?

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Halla Tómasdóttir: Yes, they did.
Moderator: Can you tell us about that?

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HT: Yes, so 41 years after
the original strike,

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we may be the best place
in the world to be a woman,

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but our work isn't done.

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So at 2:38 on Monday,

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women in Iceland left work,

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because that's when they had earned
their day's salary.

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(Applause)

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What's really cool about this

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is that young women and men participated

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in greater numbers than before,

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because it is time
that we close the pay gap.

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Moderator: So I'm not going to ask
Halla to commit right now

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to what she's doing next,

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but I will say that you'd have
a very large volunteer army

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should you decide to do that again.

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Thank you Halla.

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HT: Thank you all.

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(Applause)