Women in Finland Women's suffrage Are men and women treated equal in Finland? The Parliament Act in 1906 established the unicameral parliament of Finland and both women and men were given the right to vote and stand for election. Can a female hold official public office in Finland? election. Thus Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for parliament.
What other offices did she hold?
Aside from parliament, What other offices did Finnish women hold?
The area that in 1809 became Finland was a group of integral provinces of the Kingdom of Sweden for over 600 years, signifying that also women in Finland were allowed to vote during the Swedish Age of Liberty (1718-1772), when suffrage was granted to tax-paying female members of guilds  The predecessor state of modern Finland, the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917 and enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. In 1863 taxpaying women were granted municipal suffrage in the countryside, and in 1872, the same reform was given to the cities  The Parliament Act in 1906 established the unicameral parliament of Finland and both women and men were given the right to vote and stand for election. Thus Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for parliament. In elections the next year, 19 female MPs, first ones in the world, were elected and women have continued to play a central role in the nation's politics ever since. Miina Sillanpaa, a key figure in the worker's movement, became the first female minister in 1926.  Finland's first female President Tarja Halonen was voted into office in 2000 and for a second term in 2006. Since the 2011 parliamentary election, women's representation stands at 42,5%. In 2003 Anneli Jaatteenmaki became the first female Prime Minister of Finland, and in 2007 Matti Vanhanen's second cabinet made history as for the first time there were more women than men in the cabinet of Finland (12 vs. 8). CANNOTANSWER
In elections the next year, 19 female MPs, first ones in the world, were elected
Women in Finland enjoy a "high degree of equality" and "traditional courtesy" among men. In 1906, the women of Finland became the first women in Europe to be granted the right to vote. There are many women in Finland who hold prominent positions in Finnish society, in the academics, in the field of business, and in the government of Finland. An example of powerful women in Finnish politics is Tarja Halonen, who became the first female president of the country (she was Foreign Minister of Finland before becoming president). In religion, where most of the Finnish people are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (the other major Christian denomination in Finland is the Eastern Orthodox Church), women can be ordained as priests. In terms of finance, Finnish women have been described as "usually independent financially". Married women, by custom, introduce themselves by mentioning their forename first, then their maiden name, and then the surname of their husbands. The Telegraph wrote in 2006:

Location 
Finland is bordered on the east by Russia, on the south by the Gulf of Finland and Estonia, and on the west by the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden, and on the north/north west by Norway. One quarter of the territory is north of the Arctic Circle.

Population

By gender (2020) 
 Total population: 5,533,793
 Men population: 2,733,808
 Women population: 2,799,985

Life expectancy (2020) 
 Life expectancy in years for total population: 81.82
 Male: 79.03 years
 Female: 84.62 years

Women's suffrage 

The area that in 1809 became Finland was a group of integral provinces of the Kingdom of Sweden for over 600 years, signifying that also women in Finland were allowed to vote during the Swedish Age of Liberty (1718–1772), when suffrage was granted to tax-paying female members of guilds.

The predecessor state of modern Finland, the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917 and enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. In 1863 taxpaying women were granted municipal suffrage in the countryside, and in 1872, the same reform was given to the cities.

The Parliament Act in 1906 established the unicameral parliament of Finland and both women and men were given the right to vote and stand for election. Thus Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for parliament. In elections the next year, 19 female MPs, first ones in the world, were elected and women have continued to play a central role in the nation's politics ever since. Miina Sillanpää, a key figure in the worker's movement, became the first female minister in 1926.

Finland's first female President Tarja Halonen was voted into office in 2000 and for a second term in 2006. Since the 2011 parliamentary election, women's representation stands at 42.5%. In 2003 Anneli Jäätteenmäki became the first female Prime Minister of Finland, and in 2007 Matti Vanhanen's second cabinet made history as for the first time there were more women than men in the cabinet of Finland (12 vs. 8).

Women's rights movement 
In 1970 there was a brief but strong women's movement. Rape in marriage was not considered a crime at the time, and victims of domestic violence had few places to go. Feminists also fought for a day-care system that would be open to the public, and for the right for not only paid maternity leave but also paternity leave. Today there is a 263-day parental leave in Finland. It is illegal to discriminate against women in the workforce. Two feminist groups were created to help the movement: The Marxist-Feminists () and The Red Women (, ). The feminists in Finland were inspired by other European countries such as Sweden and Switzerland. Other important groups for the Finnish women in the 1970s include Unioni and The Feminists ().

Women's rights 
Finland became one of the first countries to grant women the right to vote, and still today they are among the top countries for women equality. Finland was voted second in the Global Gender Gap Index in women's rights. Finland made marital rape illegal in 1994. In 2003 the government of Finland proposed addressing issues with gender inequality. They planned to promote gender equality over the entire public administration, reform the Act on Equality () that the men and women in Finland share, promote equal pay for work of equal value, increase the number of women in political and economic roles, assessing gender equality from the male point of view, prevent domestic violence and intimate partner violence, protect victims of trafficking and the possibility of criminalizing buying sex. This act is called the Government Action Plan for Gender Equality () and it included more than 100 issues that needed discussion.

Education

In history 
In the late 18th century and early 19th century private schools for girls were established in Finland, among the more known being those of Christina Krook, Anna Salmberg and Sara Wacklin. These schools were criticized for its shallow education of accomplishments, which resulted in the decision that girls should be included in the school reform of 1843, and the following year, two Swedish-language state schools for girls was founded in Turku and Helsinki, Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Åbo and Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Helsingfors. This led to the establishment of a net of girl schools of a similar kind in Finland. At first the schools were reserved for girls from upper-class families.

At this time it was not possible for the girls to pass the baccalaureate and move on to university studies. In 1865 a grammar school made it clear that only girls whose upbringing and manners were impeccable and whose company cannot be considered detrimental to others, and who were from "respectable" families could be in the school.

After the first woman in Finland, Maria Tschetschulin, was accepted as a university student by dispensation in 1870, advanced classes and colleges classes were included in many girl schools to prepare students for university (by means of dispensation), and in 1872, the demand that all students must be members of the Swedish language upper classes was dropped. Women were given the right to teach in grammar schools for girls in 1882.

When the dispensation for female university students was dropped and women were accepted at the same terms as men in 1915, girls and boys started to receive the same education in the school system, and the girl schools in Finland started to be changed to same sex education, a development which was completed in the 1970s.

Today 
Finland students start their schooling a year after a lot of other countries. In spite of this, Finland is now one of the top-performing countries in mathematical skills, but also one of the few whose boys performed as well as girls. While in most countries the most able girls lag behind the most able boys in mathematics performance, according to the PISA 2012 Results Overview, the OECD gender score difference in mathematics, reading, and science was a result of -6 (boys - girls) in Finland. Additionally, while the highest-performing students of problem solving in the world are largely males, Finland makes an exception where the proportion of top-performing females is about the same as the proportion of top-performing males. This is also true among the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) where the top-performers in problem solving are predominantly men, except for in Finland, Australia and Canada.

As for Finland's educational benefits for students, Finnish schools offer state-funded schooling which makes it easier for women and men to go to work after being on parental leave. Women represent 32% of students studying in mathematics and computer science.

Women in the workforce 
According to the Finnish Labor Force Survey around 32% of the 301,000 people who are self-employed are women. Women first became involved in labor markets through agrarian societies. Even before the public daycare systems, the number of women in the workforce was still very high, over 50%. The number of workers in the labor force that makes up the females (ages 15–74) is 51%, where men is 49%. 32% of the women are involved in entrepreneurship.

Equality in the workforce 
Employers who have at least 30 employees must have a gender equality plan that includes a women's and men's pay comparison. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and other important labor market organizations set guidelines for gender equality planning.

Women in the military 

Military service is required for men in Finland, but is voluntary for women. Women who enlist are allowed to train for combat roles. Finland is one of 16 other countries in the world that permit women in front-line combat positions.

Recreation 
In using the sauna, women bathe separately from men, except if they are with family members or friends.

See also 
 Demographics of Finland

References

External links 

 Finland, everyculture.com
 Finland, Cultural Etiquette, eDiplomat

 
Finnish women
Finland
The Great Offices of State are senior offices in the UK government. They are the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, respectively. or, alternatively, three of those offices excluding the Prime Minister.

Current

History

The Great Offices of State are derived from the most senior positions in the Royal Household – the Great Officers of State. These eventually became hereditary and honorary titles, while the substantive duties of the Officers passed to individuals who were appointed on behalf of the Crown. The medieval origins of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer make it the oldest surviving Great Office of State, while the position of Secretary of State came into being in the late 16th century and the office of Prime Minister evolved gradually in the 18th and 19th centuries.

James Callaghan is the first and to date only person to have served in all four positions. In the past hundred years, several other people have come close to achieving this distinction: H. H. Asquith and Winston Churchill both served as Prime Minister, Chancellor and Home Secretary while Harold Macmillan and John Major served as Prime Minister, Chancellor and Foreign Secretary; Rab Butler and Sir John Simon served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary. Two of the Great Offices of State have often been held simultaneously by one person, most recently by Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in 1924; the Duke of Wellington is the only person to have held three of the Great Offices simultaneously, serving as Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary in the Wellington caretaker ministry.

Commons-only nature in modern times

Owing to the political constitution of the United Kingdom, in which the House of Commons retains most of the power, it is accepted that it is no longer practical for holders of the Great Offices of State to be members of the House of Lords. The House of Lords has traditionally been restrained in the passage of financial bills, meaning that the office of Chancellor is effectively limited to the House of Commons. The last holders of the other positions to have been peers were:

Prime Minister: Conservative The Earl of Home (20–23 October 1963): The Earl of Home renounced his peerage and was elected as an MP after his appointment as Prime Minister. The last holder to remain a peer throughout his term as Prime Minister was the Conservative The Marquess of Salisbury (25 June 1895 – 11 July 1902).
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Whig Lord Denman (14 November – 15 December 1834): Denman only held the post on an acting basis as an ex officio duty of his role as Lord Chief Justice, as did the peer before him, Tory Lord Tenterden (8 August–3 September 1827); the last member of the House of Lords to hold the office substantively was Whig Viscount Stanhope (15 April 1717 – 20 March 1718).
Foreign Secretary: Conservative Lord Carrington (5 May 1979 – 5 April 1982): The Lord Carrington is the most recent peer to hold one of the Great Offices of State.
Home Secretary: Conservative Viscount Cave (14 November 1918 – 14 January 1919): Sir George Cave was ennobled as The Viscount Cave while serving as Home Secretary in 1918. The last holder to remain a peer throughout his term as Home Secretary was the Whig Viscount Palmerston (28 December 1852 – 6 February 1855). However, he was an Irish peer, meaning that he was not entitled to a seat in the Lords; the last holder to remain a member of the Lords was the Whig The Marquess of Normanby (30 August 1839 – 30 August 1841).

It is most exceptional that a holder of a Great Office of State should not hold a seat in Parliament at all, neither in the Commons nor in the Lords. It occurred briefly in 1963, when Alec Douglas-Home was appointed Prime Minister: he disclaimed his peerage on 23 October, and was not returned to the Commons until a by-election on 7 November. More substantially, Patrick Gordon Walker was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1964 despite not holding a Parliamentary seat, having been defeated in his Smethwick constituency seat in the 1964 general election; he held the post for three months until his resignation in January 1965.

Women

Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State when she was elected Prime Minister in 1979. Eight women have held one or more Great Offices of State since then, with six of them being members of the Conservative Party. Due to her ascension to the office of Prime Minister in 2016, Theresa May became the first female to serve on two different Great Offices; while the appointment of her successor Amber Rudd as Home Secretary resulting in the first period in which more than one of the Offices were held by women simultaneously. Priti Patel became the first woman of ethnic minority serving in any of Great Offices of State when appointed in position of Home Secretary in 2019.

Out of the four Offices, three have been held by women; Chancellor of the Exchequer is the only position that has not. The Home Office has had the most female officeholders with four.

Prime Minister:

Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) (Conservative)
Theresa May (2016–2019) (Conservative)

Chancellor of the Exchequer:

No woman has yet served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Foreign Secretary:

Margaret Beckett (2006–2007) (Labour)
Liz Truss (2021–present) (Conservative)

Home Secretary:

Jacqui Smith (2007–2009) (Labour)
Theresa May (2010–2016) (Conservative)
Amber Rudd (2016–2018) (Conservative)
Priti Patel (2019–present) (Conservative)

Ethnic minorities

Benjamin Disraeli became the first person of an ethnic minority to attain one of the Great Offices of State when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1852. Following the resignation of The Earl of Derby in 1868, he also became the first ethnic minority to hold two different Great Offices; as well as the first and to date the only person of Jewish heritage to become Prime Minister. Eleven ethnic minority individuals have held one or more Great Offices of State since then, with nine of them being members of the Conservative Party.

Sajid Javid became the first person of Pakistani descent to hold a Great Office of State as Home Secretary in 2018 and Chancellor of the Exchequer the next year. Priti Patel became the first person of Indian descent and first female of any ethnic minority to take the position within Great Offices when she has been appointed Home Secretary in 2019.

Prime Minister:

 Benjamin Disraeli (1868, 1874–1880; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)

Chancellor of the Exchequer:

 Benjamin Disraeli (1852, 1858–1859, 1866–1868; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)
 Nigel Lawson (1983–1989; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)
 Sajid Javid (2019–2020; Pakistani heritage) (Conservative)
 Rishi Sunak (2020–present; Indian heritage) (Conservative)

Foreign Secretary:

 Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (1931; Jewish heritage) (Liberal)
 Malcolm Rifkind (1995–1997; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)
 David Miliband (2007–2010; Jewish heritage) (Labour)
 Dominic Raab (2019–21; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)

Home Secretary:

 Frank Soskice (1964–1965; Jewish heritage) (Labour)
 Leon Brittan (1983–1985; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)
 Michael Howard (1993–1997; Jewish heritage) (Conservative)
 Sajid Javid (2018–2019; Pakistani heritage) (Conservative)
 Priti Patel (2019–present; Indian heritage) (Conservative)

See also
 Cabinet of the United Kingdom
 List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State

References 

Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom Siv Tørudbakken (born 25 May 1968) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.

Following the 2007 Norwegian local elections she became the new leader (fylkesrådsleder) of Hedmark county cabinet, making her the first woman to hold this office. Tørudbakken has since 1995 held a variety of full-time political offices in the Hedmark county council.

References

1968 births
Living people
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Hedmark politicians
Norwegian women in politics