Tea For Two

• 36% in the councils
• 46% on the boards
• 48% on the committees
• 25% municipal boards and councils have a female chairperson.

In big cities the gender representation is more balanced, where 41 – 55 % of the councillors are women. For instance in Helsinki the share of women is 53 %. In the metropolitan region of Helsinki in the City of Espoo women's share is 55%, in the City of Vantaa 47,8 %  and in the City of Kauniainen 45,7 %. The main city in the northern part of the country, Oulu, has the representation of 51% of women in the council. In the city of Kuopio, in the eastern Finland, the representation of women is 41 %.    In the latest national parliament elections 18, March 2007 there were 84 women elected which is 42 % of all the 200 representatives.  Of all the candidates 42 % were women.  Of all people employed by the municipalities, 80% are women; however, only 10% of the municipal managers are women. 55% in the managerial positions are women due much to the fact in the personnel management and care taking jobs the majority are women.

The municipalities enhance gender equality in many ways  

In Finland, municipalities work towards gender equality by

• providing basis for reconciliation of work and family life by rendering welfare services
• in political decision making and by quotas,
• enhancing the equality as a duty of the employers by active equality policy and equality planning
• taking equality into account in rendering services through mainstreaming
• voluntary actions (eg. Equality Committees)

 The Committees for Equal Opportunities are voluntary organs that municipalities are free to establish. At the moment, mainly the biggest cities have set up the committees for equality. They consist of politicians, and the aim is to bring up equality issues, make proposals to the municipal government, render opinions, support the equality work of the administration. The committees do not, however, have any legal power. Many municipalities have already devised gender equality strategies and taken measures in promoting the issue in an active way. These include the employer’s plans for equality, pilot activities of mainstreaming the municipal services and the municipal budget.  

The amended Act on Equality Between Women and Men requires the municipalities:

•        as employers to take into account more specific regulations in promoting equality systematically by equality planning, to take active measures to promote equality and follow-up the implementation, prohibit discrimination

•        as the duty of public authorities to promote equality

•        in all their activities

•        to implement measures to remove obstacles of equality,

•        in rendering services the different needs,  interests and values of each sex should be taken into account

•        to apply quota in political bodies of the  municipality and the municipal joint ventures (40 % of each gender)

The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities supports the municipalities  

The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) supports the efforts towards gender equality by the Finnish municipalities by encouraging municipalities to network for gender equality and share information and experiences. The Association also seeks to develop models and record good practices to be shared between municipalities. It also gives advice on the topic and safe-guards the general interests of municipalities on the matter.