SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN 

During the Diet of the Four Estates, the right to vote was a privilege extended to only a narrow segment of the population. Completely without this right were all men who, owing to their birth, wealth or social status, did not belong to any of the four estates and all women irrespective of their estate, age or wealth. 

At the end of the 19th century, several petitions concerning expansion of both the franchise and the right to stand for election –  especially within the Estate of Burgesses and the Estate of the Peasantry –  were put before the Diet. The first initiative concerning granting women the right to vote was made in the Estate of Burgesses in 1897. Expansion of the franchise was also sought in 1900, and once again at the 1904-05 session of the Diet, to no avail. 

The petitions that were submitted did not involve the principle of universal and equal suffrage; instead, they concerned expansion of the franchise to encompass a wider segment of the Estates in question. There was also a wish to grant suffrage to women on the same grounds as men. 

The political unrest that spread from Russia to Finland, with its massive strikes, laid the
foundation for radical parliamentary reform. In 1906 Finland’s Diet of Four Estates, with roots extending back into the 17th century, was replaced by a unicameral Parliament that was the most democratic in Europe at the time. In accordance with the Parliament Act that came into force on 1 October, suffrage was universal and equal, the age entitling one to vote and to stand for election being 24 years. Women, too, received the franchise and became eligible to stand as candidates in general elections –  the first in all of Europe. Along with the reform, the number of people having the vote increased tenfold, reaching approximately 1.2 million.
 

WOMEN IN GENERAL ELECTIONS
 
 

The first general elections for the purpose of selecting representatives to the unicameral Parliament were held in March 1907. Election advertisements directed at women stressed the importance and historical significance of the general elections. A non-aligned appeal published by the Naisasialiitto Unioni (Unioni Women’s Movement) urged every Finnish woman to ensure that a sufficient number of women is elected into office, for women are best at interpreting women’s wishes.  Nineteen women were elected to the first unicameral Parliament. Compared against the results for many general elections held later, the outcome - though a disappointment to many women and women’s organisations at the time - was good. In 12 general elections held between 1910 and 1945, the number of women elected to Parliament was fewer than the 19 women Members of Parliament elected in 1907. Women candidates fared worst in the general elections held during the 1930s. Only 11 women Members of Parliament were elected in 1930.  The number of women Members of Parliament began rising in 1966, when their number exceeded 30 seats for the first time. The most women candidates gained a place in Parliament in the 1991 elections, when 77 women were elected. In the following general elections, held in 1995, the number of women Members of Parliament fell, the decline being the first in more than 30 years. Seventy-four women were elected to Parliament in the general elections of March 1999.  The average age of the women currently in Parliament is about 42 years, which is five years lower than the average age for all Members of Parliament. The age structure of the first unicameral Parliaments was slightly younger; in 1909, for instance, in all 101 Members were under 40 years of age. The average age of the first women in Parliament - approximately 38 years -  was also lower.

Parliamentarians’ level of education has risen over the years, and the average level is now clearly better than that for the entire electorate. Roughly 63 per cent of the present women Members of Parliament, and about 55 per cent of their male counterparts, hold an upper academic degree, while the corresponding figures in 1966 were only 27 per cent for women and 37 per cent for men. 

Throughout the existence of the unicameral Parliament, women have accounted for more than 52 per cent of the electorate, but there has always been an appreciably lower percentage of women candidates. The highest proportion of women candidates (41%) stood for election in 1991 and the lowest (under 10%) in the general elections held before the Second World War. Analysis of election statistics reveals that the number of women candidates has had an effect on women’s electoral success. 

The percentage of voters who cast a ballot was not calculated for women and men separately in the first general elections, held in 1907, and so it is not known how actively women exercised their new right to vote. Since then, women voters’ activity in general elections has ranged from 52 to 84 per cent, being the highest in the general elections of 1962 and the lowest in the general elections of 1929. Women were more passive voters than men until the general elections of 1987, since which time the situation has been the opposite. 

The majority of voters are women, the number of women candidates has increased and women’s activity in casting their ballot has risen yet -  despite these facts -  women have, at most, held only some 38 per cent of the seats in Parliament.
 

WOMEN IN THE WORK OF PARLIAMENT

History was made in the Finnish Parliament in spring 1996, when all three Speakers were women. The Speaker of Parliament was Riitta Uosukainen, who had been elected to the post as the first woman already in 1994, at the end of the previous parliamentary term. Sirkka-Liisa Anttila served as the First Deputy Speaker and Kerttu Törnqvist as the Second Deputy Speaker. 

Women had been elected Deputy Speaker of Parliament before the 1990s. The first woman elected to serve among the three Speakers of Parliament was Anna-Liisa Linkola, who was the Second Deputy Speaker from the second parliamentary session of 1975 to 1978. Two women had been candidates in the election for the Speakers of the very first session of the unicameral Parliament, but with poor success. It took nearly 70 years for a woman to be elected to serve among the three Speakers of Finland’s Parliament. 
 
 
 

WOMEN SPEAKERS OF FINLAND’S PARLIAMENT  Linkola, Anna-Liisa  Second Deputy Speaker Session II of 1975-78 Työläjärvi, Pirkko  First Deputy Speaker 1983-85 Hetemäki-Olander, Elsi  First Deputy Speaker 1987-90 Paakkinen, Saara-Maria  First Deputy Speaker 1991-94 Laurila, Ritva  Second Deputy Speaker 1991 Uosukainen, Riitta  Speaker  1994, 1995-98, 1999-2003 Second Deputy Speaker 1995, 1999 Anttila, Sirkka-Liisa  First Deputy Speaker 1995-96,1999-2003, 2006- Törnqvist, Kerttu  Second Deputy Speaker 1996-98

Women chairing Committees or acting as parliamentary group leaders were rare exceptions in the pre-war period: No woman had served as parliamentary group leader, and a woman had been elected to chair a Committee only twice. Women were elected to chair a Committee more widely after the Second World War, and gradually women were selected to lead parliamentary groups. Most often, a woman has chaired the Education Committee. 

Education and social affairs are the sectors traditionally considered closest to women, as concerns both parliamentary work and ministerial portfolios. Women themselves experience these issues as highly important, and many women Members of Parliament have special expertise in these fields. Outside their parliamentary career, about 23 per cent of the women who are now Members of Parliament work in the social welfare or health sector. The field best represented among the women elected to the first Parliament was education; some 47 per cent of the first women Members of Parliament worked in the educational sector.

In their research into the initiatives proposed by Members of Parliament in the period 1907-1977, Sirkka Sinkkonen and Elina Haavio-Mannila found that the proposals presented by women have concentrated, in particular, on legislation concerning social policy, cultural policy and educational policy. Specialisation by gender has decreased over time, however, and the differences between men and women have grown narrower. 

No significant differences were detected in the number or type of proposals made by women as compared to those proposed by men. Women were notably active in the parliamentary sessions of 1907, 1947 and 1977, when the percentage of proposals made by individual women Members, and of proposals they instituted, was greater than would have been assumed on the basis of the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women. 

In all, 359 women have served as Members of Parliament; eight of them have served in more than 30 parliamentary sessions. Miina Sillanpää, who took part in the work of 38 parliamentary sessions between 1907 and 1947, still holds the record as the longest-serving woman Member of Parliament.
 

CO-OPERATION AMONG WOMEN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

There has never been a special women’s party in Parliament, but co-operation among women Members of Parliament has become more intense over the years and has received a more organised form. A record-high number of women candidates gained a place in Parliament in the 991 elections; during the same year, these women set up a network -  the Network of Women in Finland’s Parliament -  to serve as their co-operation organ. 

The Network calls together women parliamentarians across all political parties to discuss political issues of particular interest to women, the objectives being to promote equality between women and men, to further the implementation of women’s rights and to introduce the perspective of women into the drafting of parliamentary Bills. The Network arranges seminars, visits and get-togethers, makes proposals, prepares statements, takes part in international activities and has co-operation with women parliamentarians in other countries. 

In spring 1996 the Network of Women in Finland’s Parliament started holding what is known as ‘information lunches’, the idea being to spark parliamentary debate on issues that are topical and important. Women who are Government ministers and Permanent Secretaries of various ministries have been among the guests invited to these ‘information lunches’, held once a month. 

Within the Network, preparation work and practical affairs are handled by a working committee, selected from among the Network’s members once a year. The working committee has one member and one deputy member from each parliamentary group. The working committee’s chair and deputy chair are elected for one year at a time, alternately from the various parliamentary groups. 
 
 

During the early days of the unicameral Parliament, co-operation between women parliamentarians was not as smooth. Although their ultimate goals were similar, during parliamentary sessions the women acted more as representatives of their party and social class than as representatives of their gender. Co-operation among women was more intense within political parties. 

During the first parliamentary session of the unicameral Parliament, women parliamentarians made two joint initiatives across political borders. One pertained to women’s safety on the streets, and the other concerned the granting of funds to provide meals for pupils at primary schools. Prohibition was an issue upheld by women across party lines. 

In issues of social policy, in particular, women worked across political borders later as well. At the parliamentary session of 1931, Miina Sillanpää signed the petition, dealing with the provision of maternity care, submitted to Parliament by Kaino Oksanen, Hilja Riipinen and two other women parliamentarians from bourgeois parties.

Already in connection with the first general elections, there was lively discussion as to whether women should form their own political party. The majority of women, however, were of the opinion that issues important to women could best be furthered in co-operation with men, and no special women’s party was founded. Women’s parties that have surfaced in later general elections have not won a single place in Parliament.
 

Updated: 8.3.2006