I was helping my 7th grade son with his history lesson (to help overcome the huge challenge of a textbook written in pretty advanced Finnish!) and the chapter we read was about how Finland established its parliament and gave all citizens the right to vote in 1906. This happened at a time when Finland was still an autonomous grand duchy under the Russian Tsar. "All" citizens included "castless" men, who had been previously excluded from decision making when a cast system with clergy/bourgeois/merchants prevailed, as well as women. Thus in one fell swoop Finland became the first country to grant universal right to vote in federal elections. (Per a timeline on women's suffrage, Australia actually allowed women to vote earlier in 1902 but its indigineous people were excluded so suffrage wasn't universal.)
I've always known Finland's proud history with women's vote but what I didn't know is that not only did women get the right to vote, they were also able to run for office. In fact, 19 women (!) were elected into the 200 member parliament right from its inception. One of them, Miina Sillanpää ended up serving in the Parliament a total of 38 years and became the first female member of the Cabinet (Minister of Social Affairs) in 1926. There is now a national "flag day" in her honor on October 1. (Finnish speakers can read more about women´s history in this great article.)
Given its egalitarian history, it isn't surprising women have been visible in Finnish politics for years. The first female president, Tarja Halonen (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Conan O'Brien as noted on his show and which led to him even meeting her...) served 2000-2012.
Recently Finland got a lot of press when Sanna Marin became the prime minister in 2019 at age 34. Again Finland broke records: not because of her gender but because she became world's youngest state leader. What also raised interest globally was that her coalition cabinet consisted of 5 women: (in the order shown in the photo) Minister of Education Li Andersson (The Left Party), Minister of Finance Katri Kulmuni (The Center Party), Prime Minister Sanna Marin (Social Democractic Party), Minister of Finance Katri Kulmuni (The Center Party), Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson (The Swedish People's Party) and Minister of Interior Affairs Maria Ohisalo (The Green Party).
Even growing up in Finland back in the 70s I don't recall ever sensing a gender bias in schooling or expectations for children. We were all equally expected to become the next Olympians. OK, I'm kidding, that is just the bitter non-athletic kid speaking... but we did all learn to knit, sew and do woodshop. It never really occured to me any professions would be in any way earmarked for men. I didn't even think of this when I applied to study physics in university. (I applied from Finland and then definitely noticed a gender imbalance when I started my studies in Canada.) This despite an odd fascination with beauty pageants that seems to still exist to some degree... If gender wasn't a big issue in my youth, it certainly doesn't seem to be one now. Almost 100 years after its first elections, Finland appears to have reached the desirable evolutionary state where gender is irrelevant to career opportunity. (Note there are still discussions about young women applying for jobs with employers possibly fearing the multi-year maternity leaves.) In fact women's position is so strong you don't see much discussion or social media memes about broken glass ceilings etc that are still a big part of my US Facebook stream. Of course Finland has its share of other societal issues but maybe there are at least no glass ceilings left for women to shatter here?
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