State Feminism Finnish Style: Strong Policies clash with Implementation Problems

Abstract

In international comparisons, Finland is regarded as one of the Nordic ‘women-friendly’ welfare states. In gender equality policy, Finland has been a runner-up which has followed the pioneers Norway and Sweden. Although Finland established its first gender equality machinery, the Council for Gender Equality, simultaneously with them in 1972, it was the last Nordic country to introduce a gender equality law in 1986. In a Nordic comparative analysis of the effectiveness of gender equality policy in the mid-1990s, Finland was placed in the third tier after Sweden and Norway, but before Denmark and Iceland. However, it was also observed that Finland deployed the least money per capita on its gender equality machinery and personnel (Borchorst, 1999, pp. 182, 184–5).