History of Women and Sport in Finland

Gender Equality in Finland

Equality between women and men is a crucial part of the Finnish welfare state model. The extensive provision of social and health care services by the municipalities has enabled women to access paid work, in addition to supporting the evolution of more equal gender relations. Today Finnish women are actively involved in every sphere of society.

In 1906 Finland became the first country in which women could fully exercise their voting rights and be eligible to stand for elective office. Today 41.5 per cent of the Members of Parliament are women. However, the first female president was elected in Finland as late as in 2000.

The first Act on Equality between Women and Men came into force in 1987. It has three major goals:

  • the prevention of sex descrimination

  • the promotion of equality between women and men

  • the improvement of women's status, especially in working life

The Act places a duty for promoting equality purposefully and systematically on all authorities, employers, in education and research. In 2005, a new Act on Equality between Women and Men came into force. The new Act is based on the old legislation augmented by the EU legislation and directives.

At governmental level, equality issues falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland.

A long tradition of Women and Sport in Finland

Non-governmental organisations, voluntary work and sports are deeply rooted in Finnish culture. The story of organised sport in Finland began more than 150 years ago, when the first sport club was founded in 1856. Since those days women have been actively involved in sport. The first women's gymnastics club was founded in 1876. A couple of decades later the first federation for women and sport saw the light of day in 1896. Today, the Finnish Gymnastics Federation, one of the oldest and biggest sports federations in Finland, has more than 400 member clubs and 140 000 members, most of them women.

Development of the gender equality work at the Finnish Sports Federation

The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport (1994) gave a boost to the Finnish equality work in sport. This gave rise to the initiative of the Finnish women's sport network: "Women on the Move". Thereupon a committee (named Spikes) was appointed to conduct gender analysis of Finnish sports culture in the summer of 1994. According to the report, the division of tasks in the sports culture is well-discriped by the following statements:

    * the more highly valued the positions are, the fewer the women
    * the closer to competative sport the positions are, the fewer women
    * the higher the positions are hierarchically, the fewer the women

Since that and also therefore the Finnish Sports Federation has actively worked for the gender equality in sport. Below are some highlights of the work of the Finnish Sports Federation:

  •  Common Goal Equality Programme

”The aim of the Finnish Sports Federation is an equal sports culture where all girls and boys, women and men, shall have equal opportunities to participate, act and make decisions in sport.”

Common Goal was launched in 1998. It set an object for the FSF that both genders will be represented on its board and other committees by at least 40 per cent. The object was attained at the Board of the FSF in 2002.

  • Mentor Programme

The FSF organised mentoring programmes for women in Finnish sports organisations with the help of the International Women’s Management Institute Finland Oy (WOM) for the 1995 – 2000 period. During these five years, 53 women took part in the mentoring programme.

  • National and regional Women’s networks

The national Women on the Move network (est. 1993) consists of over 300 women representing FSF member organizations, sport clubs, schools, sport institutes, municipalities, the government, universities, media commercial companies and other non-governmental organisations. In addition to the national network, there are regional and local Women on the Move networks located around the country.

  • European Women and Sport Chair

Finland held the Chair of the European Women and Sport network 1998 – 2000. During the Finland’s chairwomanship the number of members rose with 12 new members and also the EWS Guidelines were established for the first time. The Finnish secretariat organised the 4th EWS Conference in Helsinki in June 2000. The theme of the Conference was “Women, Sport and Culture – How to Change Sports Culture?”A total of 250 participants from 47 countries took part in the conference.

Alongside EWS Chairwomanship in 1998 – 2000, the FSF also represented Europe in the IWG Group and also organised an IWG Group meeting in connection of the EWS Conference in Helsinki in 2000.

  • Sexual harassment in sports

In September 2001, the FSF together with the Finnish Ministry of Education and under the supervision of the Council of Europe Sports Committee (CDDS) organised a European seminar on the protection of children, young people and women from sexual abuse and harassment in sport.

  • Gender impact assessment

Since 1995, the FSF collects statistics on the number of men and women in the decision-making bodies of sport organisations. Statistics, reports snd investigations make gender issues visible.

  • Enhancing women's leadership in sport

The FSF is a partner in an ENGSO equality project called ENGSO ENTER!.The aim of the programme is to 'strenghten women to volunteer at a European level'. The FSF has also been a partner in another ENGSO project, called WILD. Women's International Leadership Development programme was an one year mentorgin programme.