ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the Law Faculty of Helsinki University as an example of kind of challenges which a shift towards becoming more establishment poses, both to male hegemony in academia, and to women’s studies itself. It discusses also the reasons why this in fact very moderate addition to the academic curriculum was not as easily accepted as it first seemed. The Women’s Law Chair is one of the few in the world: in Scandinavia, it is the second after Norway, which has had its women’s studies programme and professor ever since the 1970s. The uniqueness of Chair in Women’s Law lies more in its shape as a separate discipline, than in its contents as such. An agricultural country up to World War II, Finland was modernised only very late in time, and the lay elements in its legal culture remained strong for a long time. In other words, significance of legal culture was both late and weak.
