Tag Archives: Margaret Willson

Iceland’s Forgotten Fisherwomen

In the mid-1700s, a seawoman in Iceland named Björg Einarsdóttir composed a poem teasing men on her boat for their weak rowing: Do row better my dear man, Fear not to hurt the ocean. Set your shoulders if you can Into harder motion. Her work at sea may seem unusual. After all, fishing is generally considered a man’s job. But recent work by an American researcher, Margaret Willson, suggests that Einarsdóttir was one of hundreds of Icelandic women in the 18th and 19th centuries who braved towering waves and icy waters to catch fish. click here to read the story 11:20