Finland - The Almost Gender-Equal Nation

Feminism in Finland: the good, the bad and the ugly

Our mission is to make Finland the first country where the gender gap is closed. 

Let's start by patting ourselves on the back: Finland ranks second in the Global Gender Gap Index. In the 2024 index, Finland’s gender gap is 87.5% closed. 

This achievement is not by accident, but due to generations of fighting for equal rights. 

In 1878, Finnish women secured equal inheritance rights with men – decades before in most countries.

By 1901, women gained the right to study at universities, and in 1906, Finnish women became the first in the world to win full political rights, both to vote and to run for office.  Just a year later, 19 women entered Parliament, smashing barriers and setting an example for the rest of the world.

The progress didn’t stop there. Miina Sillanpää became Finland’s first female minister in 1926, paving the way for women in leadership roles. And in the same year, women were granted equal eligibility for state positions, breaking down even more systemic barriers.

By the 1930s, marriage laws had been reformed, freeing wives from their husbands’ legal authority and allowing women to work without needing their spouse’s permission. This independence laid the foundation for the heroic efforts of Finnish women during WWII, when they ran farms, worked in factories, and kept the country going while men fought at the front.

The post-war years brought more reforms: in 1948, Finland became the first country to provide free school meals to all children, recognizing the power of equality in education. By the 1970s, Finland introduced parental leave, legalized abortion on social grounds, and mandated access to contraception – making bold strides in reproductive and family rights.

Fast forward to 2000s, and Finnish women continue to rise.

In 2000, Tarja Halonen became our first female president, and in 2017, Finland legalized gender-neutral marriage, granting adoption rights to same-sex couples. 

Finland has top-notch parental leave policies, showing support for gender equality in the family and workplace. Parents can split 320 days of parental allowance and leave. But only 15,6% of the leave is used by men.

 From political leadership to championing education, equality, and innovation, Finnish women embody resilience and progress. Today, the era of breaking glass ceilings is over, and we live in an era where we are trying to learn to live in a society shattered in glass. 

The Dark Side of Feminism

But it’s not all cinnamon buns and relaxing in a sauna in Finland. While there is progress, there is a dark side.

The wage gap is on average 16 percent in the whole labor market. Women earn 84 % of the average earnings of men in all sectors. We are just knocking on the lower limit of equality in the number of managers (37%). In listed companies, the situation is even worse (only 18% of female directors).

But this is just about the labor market. 

A study conducted by the Coalition of Finnish Women’s Associations (NYTKIS) in 2024 found that one in four men under the age of 35 believes that women can deserve violence based on their appearance, dress, or behavior. Among all men, 20% hold the same belief. Younger men are more likely to view violence as a way to earn respect, with 22% of men under 25 agreeing that sometimes violence is necessary.

According to a study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Finland is the second most unsafe country for women in the EU, and 57% of women experienced violence or threats. Half of Finnish women have experienced emotional violence in a relationship, and every third (33.7%) woman in Finland has experienced physical violence, the threat of physical violence or sexual violence in a relationship.

There’s also a growing belief that gender equality has already been achieved. Sixty percent of men in Finland think no more progress is needed, and half of them believe that feminist movements like #MeToo restrict men’s rights. This perception is particularly common among younger men, who feel that feminism has gone too far.

Women in Finland are now more likely to have higher education degrees and are increasingly represented in leadership roles across industries. One of them is the legal profession, which has experienced a significant shift toward female representation, especially in roles traditionally dominated by men, such as judges and prosecutors.

Women began outnumbering men in law school admissions in 1989, and by 1992, female law graduates surpassed their male counterparts. As of 2021, women comprised approximately 60.1% of professional judges in Finland, indicating a clear female majority in the judiciary, and 76.4% of prosecutors are also women.

This shift in power dynamics has created frustration among some men, especially those who feel left behind academically or professionally. As women’s opportunities expand, some men express resentment toward their success.

The backlash isn’t just about opinions. Anti-feminist rhetoric (and what goes with it: anti-human rights, nationalist, and far-right rhetorics)  is growing in online spaces, and they are also gaining traction in our government. These movements frame feminism as a threat to men’s freedoms, reinforcing toxic ideas about masculinity and perpetuating hostility toward women. As well as they also frame many of the issues, like men’s violence against women as an immigrant problem.

If Finland, together with the rest of the world, is to continue leading the way in equality, we must address the hostility that persists beneath the surface.