ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women’s impact on policy formation and outcome. It explores how this impact is affected by the various waves or types of women’s movement. Our empirical analysis is restricted to the Finnish situation, although these movements have an international character. It is possible to distinguish three waves of feminism or types of women’s movement. The early women’s movement, called here the first wave of feminism, was organised in Finland in 1884, when the first women’s organisation was established. The political demands made by this wave can be grouped into four categories: In addition, the early women’s movement emphasised the solidarity of all women regardless of social status and education. The first wave of feminism lost its importance as a social movement by the 1920s. Policy reforms may have undermined its goals, but other factors also contributed to its withering away.
