The feminist movement in Finland has always been moderate. Typical of the Finnish women's rights movement is that it acts inside the social structure and leaves radical campaigns to women in other countries. The number of Finnish feminists is quite small; traditionally most of the women have been highly educated.

The most active periods of the women's rights movement have been short. One period, perhaps the strongest, was the time of the "new" women's rights movement in the 1970's. Many feminist goals of the 1970's have now been achieved, and they make a great difference in the everyday life of Finland today. The focus of this paper is on how the 1970's produced the situation which Finnish women enjoy today.

Unioni, the league of Finnish feminists plays a big role in this paper, because it played the biggest role in Finnish feminism in the 1970's. One could say that the "Unioni" has brought about the greatest changes in Finnish society in the women's rights area.

This paper will also concentrate on women in the Finnish parliament, because the proportion of elected female political representatives tells a lot about the general position of women in society. Many Finnish female politicians have a history in the women's rights movement, too.

The Position of Women in Finland in the 1970's

In the Finland of the 1970's, a rape in the marriage wasn't considered to be a crime (Kyllönen). The victims of domestic violence didn't have anywhere to go, because there were no public refuges (Palosaari). In the workplace women could be given notice if they became pregnant and then they could be hired again after they had given birth (Lahti).

The feminists tried to stir conversation concerning domestic violence and rapes in the 1970's. Other things that they fought for were the developing of public day-care, the right of either or both parents to receive paid paternity or maternity leave, the right to medication during child-delivery and the abolishment of discrimination against women in working life.

Women in Finnish Parliament in the 1970's

The number of female members of parliament began to grow visibly in 1966, when for the first time more than 30 women were elected to the parliament (out of 200 total members in the Finnish parliament). In 1970 there were 43 female members of parliament and in 1979 the number had grown to 52 (Grönlund, Naiset).

Before the 1970's the number of female candidates had also been small: it had stayed at the same level from 1906, when Finnish women got the right to vote and the right to be elected to parliament, until the 1940's. There often was discrimination against women when selecting candidates. After the Second World War the proportion of women in parliament began to rise slowly, because women started to have more interest in political issues, having taken care of many of the men's jobs during the wartime. Still the number of female members of parliament stayed at around the same level, which was an average of 14 percent, until the 1970's (Seppälä 55-59).

The first woman minister, Miina Sillanpää, was elected to the Finnish parliament in 1926. She was an active feminist, like many other female members of parliament after her. From 1968 on there have been women ministers in every government. In 1970 for the first time there were three woman ministers in the government at the same time (Seppälä).

Most of the woman ministers have come from the ranks of the women's organizations. In the 1970's they mostly got only "feminine portfolios", such as the minister of social affairs and health or the minister of education. This didn't change visibly until in the 1990's (Seppälä).

The difference between men and women in voting activity disappeared in the 1970's, when problems concerning women's rights finally got attention and were also discussed in politics (Seppälä 64).

The Council for Equality between women and men was founded in 1972. Its goal was to establish equality between the sexes as a part of government policies (Seppälä 66).

These changes in the political circles of Finland are due to the feminist movement that started to gain ground in the 1970's. However many of the female politicians didn't want to be labeled as feminists, because feminists were considered to be militant and fanatic (Seppälä).

Feminist Groups in the Early 1970's

Feminist groups began to emerge at the beginning of the 1970's, due to the general atmosphere in the world at that time. In many other countries, for example in Denmark and Sweden, there already were active feminists. In Europe the feminist movement exploded in two years, between 1968-70. In Finland the awakening happened three or four years later than in other developed western countries (Jallinoja 198).

In 1973 the first two feminist groups began their activities, independently of each other. They were both Finnish-Swedish groups: The Marxist-Feminists (Marxist-feministerna, MF) and The Red Women (Rödkäringarna, Puna-akat). A few years later, in 1976, these two groups founded an umbrella organization called The Feminists (Feministit-Feministerna). This was a coordinating organ, which had no power to decide on the issues that concerned the nearly 20 groups that belonged to it (Jallinoja 198-200). The Swedish-speaking feminists were quite active also because there was much more literature concerning gender issues in the Scandinavian languages than in Finnish. Most of the influences also came to Finland from the other Scandinavian countries ¹ (Korvajärvi).

"Unioni, the League of Finnish Feminists" During the 1970's

"Unioni" and "The Feminists" were the two most important women's rights movements in Finland. "Unioni" was founded in 1892. Back then it was a suffragette organization fighting for women's right to vote, equality of pay, improvement of education and the prohibition of prostitution. "Unioni" has always had its headquarters in the city center of Helsinki (Mattila 10, Unioni, the league).

Nowadays "Unioni" is a feminist women's rights movement. Its goals are the bettering of the position of women and the abolishment of gender-based discrimination (Unioni).

In 1970 "Unioni" had become a quiet little group with no more than 40 members, who were all middle-aged or older. It didn't seem to be a potential radical feminist group (Mattila 10).

The first young members came to the "Unioni" in the early 1970's. In a couple of years they began to meet more frequently. They didn't consider themselves to be radicals, although they came up with several new ideas. The older members didn't think the younger ones were a threat to their authority (Jallinoja 200). Anyhow the new members slowly took over in the "Unioni" and began to make changes. By 1976, the whole executive committee consisted of young feminists, and for the first time one of them, Kari Mattila,² was elected as the chairwoman of "Unioni". The conservative old members, many of them over 70 years old, tried to fight back and stop the rearrangements, but eventually they had to give up and leave the "Unioni" to the feminists (Mattila 10-11).

From 1974 on "Unioni" founded groups for women where different issues were discussed. At first there were three project groups, in which the questions of woman's position in mass communications, day-care, and woman's position in society were handled. Then became the first awareness group (tiedostamisryhmä) (Jallinoja 201).

The Awareness Groups

In the late 1970's and early 1980's the awareness groups were very important tools for "Unioni", because through these groups more members could be recruited to work for their common cause. The example for the awareness groups came from Sweden and Denmark. The basic rules were that there had to be 6-8 women in a group; all were considered equal, the groups had no "leader". One at a time each member carried out the duties of the chairwoman. The meetings went on for at least two hours, and in them the members talked about their experiences as women. These groups had no united goals; their purpose was to encourage and educate women so that they could learn more about themselves and become aware of equality problems in the society in which they lived (Mattila 21-22).

Group Number One was founded in the autumn of 1977 in Helsinki. The members were nine young women who didn't know each other beforehand. In their meetings they discussed the position of women in Finland. Usually they read books and magazines and talked about the feelings that the writings awoke in them. Typical themes for their discussions were, for example, gynecology, the general attitude towards the women's rights movement, and domestic violence. They also did research about the Finnish political parties and the views that these parties had on women's position (Group Number One).

After the group had been together for a few months, the members started to feel a growing need to do something concrete. They started by writing letters to newspapers concerning such issues as erotic pictures of women in car magazines (Group Number One).

They also talked about the most important thing they had learned through the group until that point, and agreed that it was the understanding of their own conditions as women (Group Number One).

In early 1978 the group decided to give a thought to the goals of the women's rights movement. The result was the following 10-point program that they also proposed to "Unioni" to be the next plan of action:

1. Equality in child-raising
2. Equality in society and on labor market
3. Equality in the family; the sharing of housework
4. Equality between different family types
5. Paying attention to man's problems with equality
6. Parents' leave
7. The right for either of the parents to stay at home when the children are small
8. The arranging of children's day-care and the facilitating of getting help in home care
9. The obliteration of domestic violence, the supporting and helping of the victims
10. Working for peace; removing the liability to military service
    (Group Number One)

The other members of "Unioni" criticized this program because of its concentrating on family issues. They also thought that there was no need to pay attention to men's problems with equality and that the removing of the liability to military service was too radical a demand (Group Number One).

The members of the "Group Number One" still meet each other, even though the group was founded over 25 years ago. Nowadays the conversations are not as heated as in the 1970's and the topics aren't that radical either, but the spirit of feminism hasn't disappeared.³

The Women's Rights Movement in Other Cities in the 1970's

Women in other big cities in Finland also became interested in the women's rights movement in the late 1970's. There were awareness groups formed in Turku, Tampere, Lappeenranta and Oulu, but the activities in these cities were more or less temporary (Mattila).

These included The Women's Union in Turku (Turun naisunioni), which was unofficially founded in 1978. The official activities began two years later and continued until 1989. After that the enthusiasm for the women's rights movement slowly died away. The Union still works, but the number of members is quite small (Mattila 44-48).

The Women's Union in Tampere was also founded in 1980. It struggled with financial problems from the start, and in later years Helsinki's Unioni had to help it to keep it going. The Union in Tampere lasted for only ten years, but the women's rights movement didn't die away. The Union led to the founding of many women's groups that are still active today. For example The Women's Group of the University of Tampere (TAMYn Akkaryhmä) and The Green Feminists (vihreät feministit) have developed from the Women's Union in Tampere (Mattila 49-55).

Helsinki's "Unioni" also encouraged the women in Lappeenranta to found a women's union. A little group was interested, and so The Women's Union in Lappeenranta was founded in 1980. The awareness groups came to the picture later on, but they didn't work very well because of the small number of active members in the Union. The official activity came to an end already in the late 1980's, but still the women had achieved something: the first public refuge for assaulted women was founded in Lappeenranta (Mattila 60-72).

The Women's Union in Oulu began to work in 1976, at first as a subgroup of Helsinki's "Unioni" and then as an individual organization. The activity in Oulu has concentrated on awareness groups and on arranging public happenings (Mattila 78-86).

The Position of Women in Finland in 2003

Although Finnish women are nowadays often considered to be the most equal in the world, research shows that 80 percent of the housework is still the responsibility of women. The average wage of a Finnish woman is also just 80 percent of a man's wage (Lapintie). The retirement plans discriminate against women who take care of their children at home, and there are also more women who have a work contract of limited duration than there are men (Kolme askelta).

As Table I below shows, there are more women in Finland who earn 5,000-10,000 euros per year than there are women who earn 20,000-35,000 euros. With men it is the opposite. Most Finnish men earn 20,000-35,000 euros per year, whereas most Finnish women earn 5,000-10,000 euros.

Table I. Comparison of Male and Female Wage Earners, 2001

On the left are the number of wage earners in thousands. Underneath are the wages earned in euros per year.
(Based on Finnish Internal Revenue Statistics. Image Source: Tulot. [Statistics Finland])

The Finns didn't for a long time want to admit that there was domestic violence in Finland, because Finnish women were considered to be strong and equal. Only in the 1990's did it become clear how many women were being beaten by their husbands or boyfriends. Research conducted in 1998 shows that 30 percent of Finnish women have been victims of male violence and 52 percent have suffered from sexual harassment. One of the reasons for there being so many victims could be that "marriage-rape" was defined as a crime in the eyes of the law in Finland only in 1996 (Nikunen).

There had been attempts to talk about domestic violence in the 1970's, too, but the issue was such a taboo that public conversation soon quieted down. At that time women were still often accused of provoking the violence, and they didn't dare to speak about it aloud (Nikunen).

Finnish women have been able to do military service in the Finnish army since 1996. At first women were able to serve in only half of the detachments, partly to test the army's ability to integrate women into its previously all-male structure, and partly to use bases where there were already separate toilet and dressing facilities. However, since 2000 women have been able to serve in any military detachment for which they can meet the physical requirements (Puolustusvoimat).⁴

Women in Finnish Parliament in the 21st Century

In the 1999 and 2003 elections 37 percent of the people chosen to be members of parliament were women. So far, women have gotten the most places in parliament in the 1991 election. The number of female members then was 38.5 percent. There also were more female candidates in 1991 than ever before, 41 percent. However, in the following election, 1995, for the first time in 33 years the number of female members shrank (to 34 percent). Throughout the history of the Finnish parliament, from 1907 to 2003, there have been 360 female members (Grönlund, Naiset).

The year 1991 was also important because the active women chosen to parliament founded The Network of Female Members of the Finnish Parliament (Suomen eduskunnan naiskansanedustajien verkosto). This network gathers all the women of the parliament over party boundaries to discuss political questions that are of special interest to women. The goal of this action is to promote equality between the genders, bring women's rights into effect, and bring a female perspective into legislative work (Grönlund, Naiset).

The network organizes seminars, visits and meetings, makes motions, and works together with the female members of parliaments of other countries. In 1996 the network also began to arrange so-called "info lunches". The goal of these lunches is to stimulate conversation in the parliament about topical questions. Once every month there is a lunch to which, for example, female ministers and female chief secretaries of ministries are invited as visitors (Grönlund, Naiset).

In 2003 the program of "The Network of Female Members of the Finnish Parliament" is paying special attention to the female perspective in the different areas of the government. Other themes are the improving of the position of mothers and fathers working at home, the bettering of the employment of women, the securing of the services of elderly people, children's day-care, children's right to be children, and the group sizes of kindergartens and approved schools. There will also be discussion about the equality politics of The European Union and about the position of women in developing countries (Lehto-Toivakka).

Burning issues in parliament have in recent years been the prohibition of prostitution and the improving of the position of female immigrants (Grönlund, Naiset). The parliament has recently agreed that the buying of sex will be defined as a crime.

A woman, Tarja Halonen (Social Democratic Party), has been the president of Finland since 2000. Finland also got its first female prime minister, Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Center Party), in spring 2003. She was also the first woman to be the primary chairwoman of a major political party. The Center Party had never been as successful in parliamentary elections as it was when Anneli Jäätteenmäki was their leader. Unfortunately a political scandal forced Anneli Jäätteenmäki to resign her job after she had been prime minister for just a couple of months. Since then she has also given up her job as the chairwoman of the Center Party.

There have been two female ministers of transport and communications (Tuula Linnainmaa, 1995-1997; and Leena Luhtanen, 2003-), a female minister of foreign affairs (Tarja Halonen 1995-2000), and even a female defense minister (Elisabeth Rehn, 1990-1995). Finnish women have been entrusted at one time or another with almost all the ministries, which may be unique in the world. The only position they haven't held until now is the position of the first minister of finance (Grönlund, Ministereinä).

The distribution of genders in the Finnish parliament today is as follows:

Party	Women	Women %	Men	Men %	Total
The Center Party	13	24 %	42	76 %	55
The Social Democratic Party	24	45 %	29	55 %	53
The National Coalition Party	14	35 %	26	65 %	40
The Left-Wing Alliance	5	26 %	14	74 %	19
The Green League	11	79 %	3	21 %	14
The Swedish People's Party	4	44 %	5	56 %	9
The Christian Democratic Party	3	43 %	4	57 %	7
The True Finns	0	0 %	3	100 %	3
All	74	37 %	126	63 %	200

(Data source: Kansanedustajien, Graph source: Ahlgrén)

The first European parliamentary election in 1996 looked promising. There were as many women as there were men chosen among the representatives. In 1999 the proportions changed a little: there were 7 women and 9 men.

"Unioni, the League of Finnish Feminists" Today

In later years "Unioni" has focused on promoting women's position in society, raising the feminist consciousness and influencing the way women are presented in the mass media. Through Nytkis (The Coalition of Finnish Women's Associations for Joint Action) "Unioni" is a member of The European Women's Lobby. "Unioni" is also an affiliate organization of The International Alliance of Women (Unioni, the league).

Nowadays there are over 1,300 members in the "Unioni". All women are welcomed to join in. Four times a year "Unioni" publishes a feminist magazine called The Flood (Tulva). The goals of the organization are being written down in a basic program. The main goals today are to get an equal position for women in working life, to object to violence against women, and to help create an atmosphere in which children can be raised in an equal and individual way (Kolme askelta).

Group work is still a very important way of working for the "Unioni". There are five active groups for women; members are encouraged to join them or to form new groups. The existing groups are: Women for Peace (Naiset rauhan puolesta), Women's Development Aid (Naisten kehitysapuryhmä), Feminist Mothers (Feministiäidit), Bi-Women (Bi-naiset) and Femmarit, a group for young women (Unioni, the league).

"Unioni" arranges public seminars and discussions on current topics, organizes cultural events and exhibitions of female artists, and offers concrete help to women through various services. In 1993 it opened a crisis center called Tukinainen for women who have been sexually abused. "Unioni" also offers legal help for women free of charge once a week (Unioni, the league).

On their web pages "Unioni" explains that their main value is feminism: a desire to make changes and an absolute demand for equality. Feminism is based on equality between the genders in the political, sexual and economic fields. Everybody should be equal, even if everybody isn't the same.

---

Notes:

1. From my point of view Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are Scandinavian countries, even if Finnish isn't a Scandinavian language, in the same group as Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish (Finnish belongs to the Fenno-Ugrian group of languages).
2. Kari Mattila is a woman, although the name "Kari" is a man's name in Finland. Kari Mattila came from Norway, and there her name was pronounced "Kaari," which is a woman's name also in Finland.
3. Information obtained from the author's mother, who is one of the members.
4. As of December 20003 there have not yet been any female paratroopers or divers, for example.

Works Cited:

• Group Number One. Unpublished diaries, 1977-78. Personal collection of Raija-Liisa Ahlgrén.
• Grönlund, Paula. Naiset Suomen eduskunnassa. 08 August 2003 Update. The Finnish Parliament.
• - - -. Ministereinä toimineet naiskansanedustajat. 08 August 2003 Update. The Finnish Parliament.
• Jallinoja, Riitta. Suomalaisen naisasialiikkeen taistelukaudet. Juva: WSOY, 1983.
• Kansanedustajien sukupuolijakauma eduskuntaryhmittäin. 22 October 2003 Update. The Finnish Parliament. [Translations by Ilona Ahlgrén.]
• Korvajärvi, Päivi. Naistutkimuksen johdantoluento. NA1a Introduction to Women's Studies lecture. Department of Women's Studies. University of Tampere, Finland. 9 September 2003.
• Kyllönen, Marja. Raiskaus: Rikos, jossa uhrin on todistettava syyttömyytensä. Ilta Sanomat, 18 November 1977.
• Lahti säästi henkilöstömenoissa. Ilta Sanomat. 16 December 1977.
• Lapintie, Annika. Naiset ja budjetti. The Finnish Parliament. Viewed 22 October 2003.
• Lehto-Toivakka, Marketta. Naiskansanedustajien verkoston toimintasuunnitelma 2003. The Finnish Parliament. Viewed 22 October 2003.
• Lipponen, Päivi, and Päivi Setälä. Women in Finland. Keuruu: Otava, 1999.
• Mattila, Kari, and Johanna Suorsa. Viattomat, vallattomat ja rohkeat. Helsinki: Cosmoprint Oy, 1994.
• Nikunen, Minna. Naistutkimuksen johdantoluento. NA1a Introduction to Women's Studies lecture. Department of Women's Studies. University of Tampere, Finland. 04 November 2003.
• Palosaari, Kristiina. Avomies lyö, mutta pakopaikkaa ei ole. Ilta Sanomat. 18 November 1977.
• Puolustusvoimat. Naiset voivat hakea palvelukseen kaikkiin joukko-osastoihin. 12 November 2003 Update. The National Defence Forces.
• Tulot. Updated 10 September 2003. Tilastokeskus. [Translations by Ilona Ahlgrén.]
• Unioni Naisasialiitto Suomessa ry. Viewed 28 October 2003.
• Kolme askelta tasa-arvon tiellä - Naisasialiitto Unionin periaateohjelma julkistettu 18.9.2001. Viewed 28 October 2003.
• Unioni, The League of Finnish Feminists. Viewed 28 October 2003.

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Last Updated 24 April 2010