| Benedikte Thorsteinsson | |
| Native Name: | instead.--> |
| Birth Date: | 12 February 1950 |
| Birth Place: | Eqaluit, Greenland |
| Office: | Minister for Social Affairs and Labor of Greenland |
| Term Start: | 4 April 1995 |
| Term End: | 19 September 1997 |
Benedikte "Bendó" Sara Nanna Thorsteinsson Abelsdóttir (née Kristiansen; born 12 February 1950)[1] is a Greenlandic politician (Siumut).
Benedikte Thorsteinsson is the tenth of fifteen children of the sheep breeder Abraham Terkild Abel Kristiansen (1918-?) and his wife Hanne Malene Dorthea Lise Rosing (1914-?),[1] a sister of Nikolaj Rosing (1912-1976). She is the sister-in-law of the politician Ûssarĸak K'ujaukitsoĸ (1948-2018) and thus the aunt of Vittus Qujaukitsoq (* 1971). Another niece is Anna Wangenheim (born 1982). Her father was chairman of the sheep breeders' association he founded and was also active as a local politician.
Thorsteinsson attended high school in Køge, Denmark,[2] which she graduated in 1970. There she met Icelander Guðmundur "Gujo" Þorsteinsson (* 1949), whom she married on 22 September 1971. The couple moved to Iceland that same year, where she trained as an office clerk.[1] She has four children with her husband, including Inga Dóra G. Markussen.[3] In 1984 the family moved to Qaqortoq, where Benedikte was employed by the municipal administration. From 1985 to 1988 she was the municipal apartment manager. From 1988 to 1989 she was a course leader at Sulisartut Højskoliat and then a specialist teacher at the business school in Qaqortoq until 1995.[1] She worked as an advisor to the Icelandic consul in Greenland Pétur Ásgeirsson.[4]
From 1989 to 1995, Thorsteinsson was a member of the Qaqortoq Municipality Council, serving as Deputy Mayor. She stood as a candidate in the parliamentary elections in 1995, but failed to make it into parliament.[5] Nevertheless, she was subsequently appointed Minister for Social Affairs and Labor in the Johansen II Cabinet.[6] When Lars-Emil Johansen resigned as Prime Minister in 1997, Thorsteinsson was replaced by Mikael Petersen.[7] [8]
Together with her husband, she received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 2019.[4]