A politics for presence: state feminism, women's movements and political representation in Finland

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Abstract
Introduction In Finland women gained the right to vote by 1906, and women's parliamentary representation has increased steadily since (Karvonen and Selle 1995: 5; Raaum 1999), rising from 9.5 per cent in 1907 to 30 per cent in 1983 and 37.5 per cent in 2003. In contrast, women's representation at the local level and in the corporatist structures of Finnish society has remained lower (Raaum 1999; Haavio-Mannila et al. 1985). The high proportion of women in parliamentary politics has been explained by socio-economic factors (women's high education level and their full-time participation in the labour market), the existence of relatively strong and independent women's political organisations and, last but not least, the structural characteristics of the Finnish political system (Bergqvist et al. 1999; Karvonen and Selle 1995; Dahlerup 1989; Haavio-Mannila et al. 1985). Finland is a parliamentary democracy with a unicameral parliament and a multi-party system. The electoral system is based on proportional representation and multi-member constituencies. The open list system and mandatory preferential voting also make it possible for the electorate to express their gender preferences at the polls. Traditionally, women have voted for female candidates and men have voted for male candidates. In this chapter, we will analyse the substantive impact of women's movements and the role of state feminism on debates concerning political representation. The results suggest a link between women's descriptive and substantive representation in issues that explicitly concern strengthening women's presence in decision-making arenas.

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