ABSTRACT
Finland is a small Nordic country with only 4.8 million inhabitants. Only recently industrialised, it ranks twenty-first in the World Bank list of gross national product statistics. Women are more likely to have obtained secondary school qualifications than men and since 1976 have been 60 per cent of those passing the matriculation examination. Recent Finnish social and economic development has been characterised by rapid change and this has included substantial alterations in the position of women. Finnish women fare less well in municipal than general elections. Women vote for, join and are active in the non-Socialist parties more often than in the Socialist ones, but are more likely to hold electoral office as representatives of the Socialist parties. Factors favouring women’s participation have included economic growth and modernisation, rapid social and political changes including changes in the general position of women and both the feminist and labour movements.
