Kingston University London

MSc Occupational and Business Psychology

2015/2016

Female political leaders in Finland:

How do they do it?

Maria Nyroos, K1558463

Word count: 12,900

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Abstract

In this research, we will adopt a feminist approach to explore how women become political leaders

in Finland. After discussing previous feminist political and leadership theories, we conclude that the

journey to become a female political leader is made of many hardships and detours. A total of 12

Finnish women were interviewed for the purpose of this research. All of the participants are former

or current ministers, presidents or vice-presidents of a party. Using Interpretative Phenomenological

Analysis, I conclude that these Finnish female political leaders share a few core characteristics:

passion, courage, hard work and a steady support system. The limitations and implications for the

field of feminist theories and occupational psychology are discussed, namely how women are

further discriminated during their careers. This research is written with an autobiographical

narrative and the personal value of the research subject is often expressed.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to first thank my supervisor, Dr. Imas, for supporting me and guiding me throughout

this research project. I’m thankful that he encouraged me to get my voice heard and to embrace my

ambitions head on. I want to also thank all the 12 participants who took part in this research. They

are truly smart, ambitious and capable women, who are all making political history in their own

way. I am very proud to call them my role models. Finally, I would also like to thank my family and

friends, who have had to endure my absence and stress these last few months.

Declaration

I declare that this dissertation is all my own work and the sources of information and material I have

used (including the Internet) have been fully identified and properly acknowledged as required.

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Table of Contents

Title page i

Abstract ii

Acknowledgements & Declaration iii

Table of Contents iv

Chapter One: Introduction 1

1.1. A Personal Research Question 1

1.2. Political History and Research Context 1

1.2.1. Female political history 2

1.2.2. Top positions in politics 3

1.3. Research Aims and Structure 4

1.3.1. Inspiration 4

1.3.2. Structure 4

Chapter Two: Literary Review 6

2.1. Introduction 6

2.2. Gendered leadership theories 7

2.3. Political leadership from a feminist point of view 9

2.3.1. Why women should get to political power 9

2.3.2. How women do get to political power 10

2.3.3. How hard it is to get to political leadership 12

2.3.3.1. The role of the media 13

2.3.4. How women carry on in political leadership 14

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2.3.4.1. Support systems 14

2.3.4.2. Hard work 15

2.4. Concluding remarks 15

Chapter Three: Methodology 17

3.1. Research design 17

3.2. Data collection 17

3.3. Participants 18

3.4. Data analysis 18

3.5. Limitations 19

3.6. Ethics 19

3.7. Gender identity 19

Chapter Four: Analysis and Discussion 20

4.1. How they got there 20

4.1.1. Chance played its part 20

4.1.2. A great deal of passion 21

4.1.3. Invitation to the party 22

4.2. Who they got there with 24

4.2.1. Right at the beginning 24

4.2.1.1. Education 24

4.2.1.1. Family 25

4.2.2. It’s a family affair 26

4.2.3. There’s a man 27

4.3. How they work 28

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4.3.1. Even the queen bee works hard 28

4.3.2. The role of the media 30

4.3.3. You have to be brave 31

4.4. Conclusions 32

Chapter Five: Conclusions 33

5.1. How women become leaders 33

5.2. Limitations and future research 34

References 37

Appendices 41

Appendix 1: Interview questions 41

1

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1. A Personal Research Question

It has been five years since I joined a political youth movement in 2011. Consequently, I joined a

political party in 2013. Although I found that a lot of my political concerns were answered in my

party and I was happy to be part of the movement, I quickly noticed highly alarming inequalities

across the Finnish political scene. Firstly, there weren’t many female party leaders. Secondly, those

female leaders received an awful lot of gendered criticism. Thirdly, the roadmap for a woman to

become a political leader seemed unnecessarily long and rocky. In 2014, I started a gender equality

committee amongst our political youth movement and received backlash like I never expected.

Regardless, the committee wrote a new feminist agenda for the organisation and overall became a

success. After two years I stepped down, having gained a first-hand experience of how difficult it is

to try to encourage gender equality in the political sphere and to speak as a female voice in politics.

I looked to my female political role models and wondered: how do they do it?

This is the essence of this research: to understand women in political leadership. I studied hard

during my MSc Occupational and Business Psychology to understand leadership theories and

disparities of who can make it to the top and who cannot. Alas, little answer could be found to my

question relating to gender and politics. This research attempts to identify the first ideas that will

lead to the answer.

1.2. Political History and Research Context

In my time women have made political history in Finland, such as having our first female President

in 2000, first female Prime Minister in 2003 (albeit for only two months) and our first female

Finance Minister in 2011. This goes to show how slow progress is, considering that Finland is often

ranked as one of the most gender equal countries in the world (“The Global Gender Gap Index

Results in 2015”, 2015), not in the least for the fact that women got the right to vote and the right to

run for the Parliament in 1906 (Raaum 1999). While there hasn’t been any jurisdictional roadblock

to female political leadership, the problem seems to be elsewhere. The glass ceilings are created by

something – or someone – other than the law.

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1.2.1. Female political history

In Finnish political history, women have always had a fundamental role. Before the birth of

women’s organisations at the end of 1800’s (Raaum, 1999), women used to meet up in knitting

clubs. Unrecorded and private, women’s knitting clubs remained out of reach for traditional

historians, but they were the early days of feminist history in Finland (Saarinen, 1985). In-between

yarn patterns, women would have presentations, discuss literature and politics, and sell their

products to fund women’s shelters and schools. After the Finnish parliamentary elections of 1907,

women held 10% of the seats – a number that the other Nordic countries would only reach around

WWII – and it has been attributed to women’s relatively high participation in paid work and early

party political organising (Raaum, 1999). However, the Finnish women’s political participation

only became prominently powerful in the 1970’s and 1980’s when the autonomous organisations

for women within the political parties succeeded in putting forward new social and education

policies (Christensen, 1999). Consequently, the number of female members of the parliament rose

significantly, as can be seen from the graph below. Women have yet to reach 50% of the parliament

(100 seats), let alone a majority of the seats.

Figure 1.1. Number of female Members of the Parliament out a total of 200 in Finland, 1907-2015.

Reprinted from the Finnish Parliament, 2015. Retrieved September 12th

, 2016, from

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https://www.eduskunta.fi/EN/tietoaeduskunnasta/kirjasto/aineistot/yhteiskunta/womens-suffrage-

110-years/Pages/women-as-members-of-parliament.aspx

1.2.2. Top Positions in Politics

When it comes to the ministerial positions in the government, the World Economic Forum ranks

Finland first out of all the countries in its Global Gender Gap Report 2015. However, these ranks

misconstrue the history: female ministers only became a norm in the 21st century and in the most

recent government, only one third of the ministers are women. As seen from the graph below, future

governments require a lot of female ministers in order to reach 50/50 balance.

Figure 1.2. Number of female ministers in Finland 1917-2015. Reprinted from the Finnish

Government, 2015. Retrieved September 12th

, 2016, from

http://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/government/history/male-and-female-ministers

It is important to note that in our time women have a considerable chance to reach a ministerial

position, but again, this evolution took a long time. The first female minister in Finland was Miina

Sillanpää in 1926 from the Social Democratic Party, but the first time women represented 50% of

the ministers was in 2003 with the Centre Party’s Anneli Jäätteenmäki as Prime Minister. The

government lasted two months until Prime Minister Jäätteenmäki was forced to resign in the

aftermath of a scandal. She was also the first female leader of a major political party in Finland –

the Social Democratic Party followed suit in 2008 and the National Coalition Party has yet to elect a

female leader. Regardless of the political circumstances in Finland, it is simply astounding that after

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granting the universal right to vote in 1906, it took Finland 20 years to appoint its first female

minister and nearly 100 years to get its first gender balanced government.

1.3. Research Aims and Structure

Now, with the previous facts and figures in mind, we can circle back to my initial wondering about

the gender disparities in politics and it becomes quite evident that it is not all that surprising. In

order to know how the current and former female political leaders succeeded in their careers, we

have to take a look at the existing power structures, our understanding of political leadership and

explore the lives and feelings that these women have. In this research, we ask the following

question:

How do women get into political leadership positions?

1.3.1. Inspiration

This research was inspired by a book by Marjatta Salmenkari and Asko Järvinen (1985), “Women

at the top of the economy” (Naisia talouselämän huipulla), where 13 women in high positions in

the private sector shared their stories, about their careers and gender disparities in the work force.

Although little analysis was included in the book, it pointed out some interesting commonalities:

first, women need to make a choice between their careers and family. Second, women need to

believe in themselves and work hard. Third, women have to decide on their position in the world of

men. Fourth and final, their ambition and activity have roots in their childhood.

1.3.2. Structure

Although this study doesn’t exactly follow the path of Salmenkari and Järvinen (1985), I will

likewise explore the stories of political female leaders of our time and whether they express

common themes in their careers. I have interviewed 12 current and former female political leaders

in Finland across six different political parties. The participants were asked open-ended questions

relating to their careers, but none of the questions were specifically gendered. While each of the

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interviews provided enough material to write multiples theses, I have clustered the results into three

sets: how do the women get in political leadership positions, who does their support system consist

of and what does their life look like in the top position.

Chapter Two of this research paper discusses major feminist leadership and political theories with a

special emphasis on power relations. Then we will explore recent literature on how women are

viewed in politics, the adversities they face and how they gain access to leadership.

Chapter Three describes the methodology of this research, including the design, participants,

analysis and ethics.

Chapter Four combines both the analysis and discussion of the study. Relating back to the literary

review, we will critically examine how the participants’ stories correspond to the current research.

Chapter Five draws together concluding remarks and includes limitations and implications for

future research.

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Chapter Two: Literary Review

2.1. Introduction

In this chapter, we will go through the two theoretical elements essential to this research: leadership

and politics. However, both will be evaluated through a gendered lens, as I will take a feminist

approach to our subject. We will first take a look at some leadership theories and the progression of

gender investigation within the leadership psychology field. After, we will move on to the feminist

view of political power and leadership. Finally, we will try to anticipate the path that female

politicians go through – how they essentially become political leaders.

Before we go on this journey however, it is essential that I define my use of gender properly.

Personally, I believe gender is a spectrum and gender identity is not binary, separated into men or

women, but that there are rather many different interpretations of gender and they’re always

personal to the individual. It is important to note that the sex of a person is the biological category

administrated at birth, where our society separates men and women, while gender is the total of

social meanings associated with the categories of male and female (Lovenduski & Baudino, 2005).

Our society has widely accepted this binary, but there are many that live outside of these categories

– in Finland it is estimated that there are about 5,000 transgender people but the exact statistics are

difficult to pinpoint (Ombudsman for Equality, 2012). Gender can also be understood as a spectrum

of masculinity and femininity (Lovenduski & Baudino, 2005), which is what we are going towards

in the occupational psychology field. All in all, gendering is used to frame debates and it gives

structure to our debate at hand, which is why we will embrace the use of gendered words such as

“female/male” and “women/men”.

Moreover, it is interesting to put all of leadership and political leadership research in a gendered

context, because so far the history of leadership research has evolved very slowly. All of the

research up until the last two decades was made by men, with male participants, for male readers

and leaders. First, the researchers asked can women be leaders, then what kind of leaders could

women be and now finally why are there so few women in leadership position (Northouse, 2003).

Taking this into account, the most cynical of us might not be surprised to find out that in Finland

those companies who had a majority of female leaders over male leaders were those that also had

90% female staff (Lämsä, 2003). So do women need a collective female environment to prosper and

advance?

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When we look at politics, we need to note that it is an extremely masculine environment and the

prospect of having 90% of politicians be women is quite skim and utopian. So how do women

climb the ladder in politics? First, we will have to look at the definition of politics, which we will

explore through the feminist understanding of the distribution of power. While politics and power

are often dominated by their male definitions (Deutchman, 1996), there has been virtually no

evidence of any differences in men and women’s leadership styles (Christensen, 1999), nor in the

division of power (Deutchman, 1996).

Rather than wondering how female leadership is different from male leadership, we need to ask

ourselves how women become leaders. What kind of process do they have to go through? Do they

go with the masculine definitions of leadership and power, or do they construct their own path and

style? Once they go through this process, how do they cope at the top? Do they change their

approach? Do they carry on? Is it difficult or do they become equals to their male colleagues?

Not all of these questions can be answered within one study, but in order to understand the stories

of these women, we need to go deeper into their view of their career path, and what they credit their

success to.

2.2. Gendered leadership theories

As mentioned before, most of the leadership research has been conducted from the male

perspective. Not only are the theories very biased towards stereotypical masculine power, they also

differentiate female leadership from the general leadership definitions. In this already gendered

field, feminist theorists remain highly critical of the status quo of traditional leadership theories.

Having written a previous essay on the subject of leadership theories (Nyroos, 2016), I would like

to present a few observations based on the traditional organizational leadership.

There have been many phases in the history of leadership theories. First, there were the trait theories

suggesting that leaders are born with certain innate personality traits, such as intelligence, social

capabilities and creativity. To this day, the correlations between personality traits and leadership

emergence and effectiveness have still been shown to be low and inconsistent (Colbert, Judge, Choi

& Wang, 2012). Moreover, when studying gendered trait differences, men and women seem to

score similarly – for example in social competence – but people still perceive gender differences in

leadership, in the form of “think-management-think-male” (Sczesny, Bosak, Neff and Schyns,

2004).

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Building upon this, transformational theories of leadership often state that leaders who possess

personal values systems, such as emotional intelligence, transfer them to their subordinates to reach

higher level of ability and potential (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987). Emotional intelligence is often

attributed as a feminine trait, even though there is very conflicting and inconclusive research on the

matter (Mandell & Pherwani, 2003). Also, we should be very careful about confusing innate traits

and learned behaviours: women can deploy certain behaviours that are expected of them, but that

does not mean that they are born to be extremely social.

In fact, when discussing leadership styles (connected to contingency theories, such as the path-goal

theory), it has long been evident that no differences in leadership styles can be found between men

and women (Polston-Murdoch, 2003). The gender stereotype of women being more relationship-

oriented and men more task-oriented has not been supported by meta-analysis (Eagly & Johnson,

1990). Actually, it is rather dependent on the environment – women are rated worse if they use

stereotypically male styles of leadership (autocratic) and better when act in a stereotypically female

style (democratic) (Eagly, Makhijani & Klonsky, 1992). The devaluation of female leaders was

especially strong when they occupied stereotypically male positions and they were evaluated by

their male counterparts.

In order to really address the issue of female leadership, we need to move away from the traditional

leadership theories (made by men, for men) and move towards analytical criticism of gender

stereotypes and perceived gender differences in leadership. As we move on to understanding

feminist literature on the subject, it is extremely important to note that the feminist literature is not a

homogenous field and that there is no one ruling feminist leadership theory.

Actually, feminist theories of leadership are rather connected to the theories of power acquisition

and power distribution. The feminist viewpoint aims to discover issues of oppression at a personal,

group or institutional level (Barton, 2006), and its mission is to change the power structures to

empower those oppressed (Chin, Lott, Rice, & Sanchez-Hucles, 2007). There is a distinct difference

between female leadership and feminist leadership – the latter focusing on using the acquired power

to empower women – so it cannot be assumed that all female leaders are feminist leaders. This

research will focus on female leadership with a feminist approach, but will not assume that the

female political leaders in question are particularly feminist leaders. In fact, as Lott (2007) noted:

“at the present moment, feminist leadership, with some exception, may be more hope than

possibility” (p.32).

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Due to the lack of general and realistic feminist models of leadership, we will focus on the specific

feminist theory of political leadership and limit the use of traditional leadership theories to this

section.

2.3. Political leadership from a feminist point of view

2.3.1. Why women should get to political power

Politics is often understood as a manifestation of power, more specifically the allocation and

distribution of power, and this power can mean many things: relationships, or a property or quality

(Deutchman, 1996). By the feminist approach, white heterosexual males have de facto power over

any other group of people, and their definition of dominance-submission power over women is then

applied to all other relations, such as class, race, religion etc. (Lipman-Blumen, 1984). The

traditional view of power then is a very masculine “power over” definition, when the idea is to

control other groups of people.

On the contrary, feminist theorists define female power as a “power-to”, “power-for” or

empowerment (Flammang, 1983). This means that women (feminists) who get to be in a leadership

position need to use said position to empower others who are oppressed in the societal structure. As

an example, if a woman would be elected as a party leader, in the feminist context she should use

her power to promote the people and the issues of other women, gender and sexual minorities,

religious and ethnic minorities, etc. The “power-to” can mean the power to act or not to act, but

refraining from action cannot be quantified and therefore it is missed in empirical research (Bachrah

& Baratz, 1962). The end goal of accessing power is then to use it “for good”, to change and

improve politics and policy for those oppressed. Empowerment in general is argued to be a feminist

concept, often limited to only women, while men in politics seek to remain in control and dominate,

to have “power over” others (Deutchman, 1996).

The reason why feminist theorists argue for sharing of power with those further oppressed, is

because women and other minorities do not have access to the same resources in patriarchy. They

cannot access power in any community the same way that white heterosexual males can and

therefore men also tend to be more effective in using their power than women (Sagrstano, 1992).

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Relating back to the statistics shown in the first chapter, we can see that throughout the years men

in Finland had access to political power and remained in power for most of the last century. As said

before, when women got access to labour and education, their resources increased and they got a

larger chance to access that power. Yet the glass ceiling effect still persists and women still remain

without certain resources – such as perceived leadership.

However, it seems that men rarely go through an epiphany of their privilege and give up on their

power. This means that if women want to get into power, they need to also take that power, because

it is not handed to them freely (Deutchman, 1996). So if feminists don’t want to exercise the “power

over” tactics, but are put in an environment of “power over” world, how are they supposed to rise to

power? Usually they need to abide by the same masculine rules of domination, which means that

women wanting to only enforce “power-to” may never get into the position to do so (Deutchman

1996). This theory does not apply only to women, but to any group that is considered an “outsider”

in politics. The acquisition of power depends on becoming an insider and the insiders have to play

by the rules of the dominant party. It seems that at the present moment, political power cannot be

achieved without at least in some sense holding power over others (Lips, 1981). If needed to

employ the harmful “power-over” tactics to get to power, would then any feminist “power-to”

consciousness survive?

Again, this division of power use is not clear cut. There has been no empirical evidence to show that

women and men use power differently. Also, it is very dangerous to go back to the somewhat

patriarchal essentialism and the division of men and women by sex. With the same argument, we

could defend women’s need to stay at home to preserve their higher morale and maternal instincts

(Deutchman, 1996).

We do however need to acknowledge that men hold a particular dominance in politics, even in

Finland. And if politics is a view of power, there should be a discrepancy in the distribution and use

of power between the majority and the minority. For women to rise from a minority to a majority,

they have to use the tools of the majority. Then how do women make use of this power?

2.3.2. How women do get to political power

It is naïve to think that women can just rise to power upon deciding they are capable of dominating

over others. The fight for women’s rise and leadership has been evolving over many decades,

starting from the suffragette movement. Women have striven for leadership because they need

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representation in the power positions to reach their agenda. The feminist and female agenda (here

intertwined) is comprised of four different definitions of representation: authorised power

comprises of a legal representative, descriptive power is a representative of a group of people

sharing ones characteristics (such as gender), symbolic power where a leader stands for national

ideas and substantive power where a representative advances a group’s policy and interests

(Lovenduski & Baudino, 2005).

For these representatives to emerge, women in politics have had to start a certain chain reaction in

the political party system. Women have had to first get their political party to commit to gender

equality, then female members use this to demand increased representation (as above), and once

represented they achieve more votes for party policy change – this is called the feminist infiltration

to party politics (Lovenduski & Norris, 1993). This process is the reason why the existence of

autonomous women’s organisation inside political parties has been essential to the rise of women’s

representatives and issues in politics.

However, if parties fail to respond to the demands of women’s organisations, women often raise

their demands to hold their political parties accountable to their commitment for gender equality.

When the political party’s rhetoric changes, it triggers positive action to include the women’s

agenda, which then leads to positive results for women’s rights, which in turn increases the number

of female party members and hopefully then secures the adequate levels of representation

(Lovenduski & Norris, 1993). This development can be seen in the Nordic countries, as the number

of political party members has radically declined since the 1970’s, but the female party membership

has steadily increased over time (Christensen, 1999).

Relating back to the previous section, we can conclude that in the history of politics women have

not just magically risen to power when decided to do so, but they are rather part of a bigger

movement. As women have used their force to employ power over political parties together, they

have increased their representation steadily. By increasing their representation more and more

political parties have included a separate women’s or feminist agenda to their party policies. For a

woman to rise to political leadership, she must be a result of a long historical movement. For a

woman to fulfil her ambitions in the political sphere, she most probably to some extent will have to

answer to a larger women’s movement, or at the very least represent women. Women often are a

“token” of their gender (Lämsä, 2003) – not only to the society, but also to the women’s movement.

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2.3.3. How hard it is to get to political leadership

The exceptional speciality about political democracy is that anyone can have plans on how to be

elected, but it is ultimately down to the voters whether one will be. One can however alter their

chances of being elected with money, correct communications and campaigning, and profile

manipulation. For women this seems especially difficult, considering the above mentioned

masculine perception of leadership and political power.

More importantly, the perception of female candidates is linked to their gender and sex. Studies

show that candidates hold gender-trait stereotypes and gender-belief stereotypes in three major

areas: ideology, personality characteristics and issue specialisation. In fact, according to Dolan

(2004), female candidates are seen as more liberal than not only men, but also than what they are in

reality. Therefore, women are viewed as much more liberal than the average candidate and are by

default marginalized from the average voter. Moreover, they are perceived as warm and tender,

even though they would be trying to send out a message of tough and “masculine”. There are

extremely conflicting studies on the subject of voter perception. Recent research shows that

although women can overcome these gender stereotypes by amplifying their “masculine” traits of

leadership, they can also receive “likeability” backlash from voters outside of their own party

(Bauer, 2016). In another study, Schneider and Bos (2014) suggested that women don’t share

stereotypical female qualities, but rather that they lose on male stereotypical qualities they are

perceived not to possess. The higher the level of office, the more there is a preference for “male”

characteristics (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993; Rossenwasser & Dean, 1989). However, other research

also suggests that especially long term female politicians lose some of their negative female gender

stereotypes just by the fact that they are in politics and in a masculine profession (McDermott,

2016). It seems that either way, masculine or feminine, the women candidates lose.

On the other hand, as women are seen as warm and “softer” than men both as persons and in the

issues they raise, they can receive backlash not because of their perceived qualities, but because

they don’t adhere to their communal expectations – women cannot show the same ambitions as men

because they are expected to work for their communities and the good of the common people

(Okimoto & Brescoll 2010). In short, women cannot show career ambition nor power seeking

characteristics like men do. So do women sell themselves short, if they cannot be publicly

ambitious in politics? For women, politics should not be a career but a Samaritan project to the

public.

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Even though most of the research is centred in the US, Carlson (2001) suggested in a comparative

study that these effects of political playing with gender stereotypes apply both in the US and in

Finland. Even though the political climate and system are completely different in the US compared

to Europe, the gender stereotypes prove to be global issues.

According to the research, there is one message for female political candidates: you can’t win with

your gender and (perceived) personal characteristics.

2.3.3.1. The role of the media

Although the subject is vast and the research is endless, I have to include a short mention about the

role of the media when representing female candidates.

One of the culprits in the stereotypical gender construction of political candidates is the image the

media portrays. In a case study of the media coverage about Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister

of Australia, Hall and Donaghue (2012) concluded that female leaders in politics face a so-called

“double bind”: aspiring female leaders need to be ambitious and emphasize their competence as

traditional masculine traits, but not so that they lose their femininity and therefore likeability. The

Australian media was careful not to pin the former Prime Minister against a male example of her

position, but they emphasized her incompatibility with the more traditional female communal

behaviour.

In fact, media’s sexism and differential treatment of women is often subtle rather than blatantly

antifeminist (although those exist too). As described by Barden (1996), media often asks female

politicians different questions than men, describes female politicians with gendered language

centred on their appearance and behaviour, points out their emotional responses leading to

weakness, indecisiveness and emotionality, and holds them accountable for the actions of their

children and husbands. And again, the higher women aim, the riskier it gets.

In this research, our interest will be to understand female politicians’ attitude towards media in

Finland in the year of 2016. Are these described behaviours of the media towards female politicians

true? Have they changed? Do women still consider media a threat? Although we won’t focus on this

primarily, it is important to note the vast influence of the media in a politician’s career and

politicians’ dependence on media coverage and favourability.

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2.3.4. How women carry on in political leadership

In this section we will cover the literature on how women cope with their leadership positions.

From previous sections we can clearly conclude that political leadership does not come to women

without its hardships. So what do they credit their success and perseverance to?

2.3.4.1. Support systems

In feminist debates, an often heard argument for female political leadership is the need for political

role models for young girls and women, so that the number of female representatives can increase

over time. Recent research suggests that although the success of female politicians does increase the

participation of young women and girls, it is not because of perceptions about female political

appropriateness, but rather because of general increased political discussion, especially within

families (Campbell & Wolbrecht, 2006). In fact, the involvement of women in the political sphere

goes beyond role modelling just a few successful women (Broockman, 2014).

This leads us to believe that families and upbringing have a considerable role in female politicians’

lives. In fact, female executives in the private sector credit their success partially to their childhood

role models, parents’ support and encouragement, and education level (Piitulainen, Rönkkö,

Jaakkola & Kuhmonen, 2003). Without discrediting the importance of career role models in

successful female political leaders, it seems that the role models can go unnoticed without proper

engagement by the family or other surroundings, like school.

Concerning families, the relationship between political figures and media is complex. In the popular

culture, male politicians who take care of their families are often seen as responsible and virtuous,

while women are expected to balance their political and private life. This double standard often

leads to a lack of understanding and knowledge about how their private life affects their public

career (Van Zoonen, 1998).

It is suggested that for female politicians to get into the business of politics and to have the ambition

for leadership, their support system relies on their childhood families. But does the support network

change when they are adults and right in the midst of their career? Where do their partners fit in the

picture? There is a definite gap in the literature about the role of a male partner and how female

politicians do or do not draw strength from their families, or friends.

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2.3.4.2. Hard work

In addition to being inspired or encouraged by their surroundings, women are extremely self-

sufficient in their ambition in the sense that they have to work extremely hard to get to leadership

positions. What has become apparent in the journey of female leadership described by this chapter,

is that women face multiple adversities in their careers as politicians. Not only do they face

structural discrepancies, but also purely sexist attitudes that aim to make their lives difficult.

It not a surprise then, that women in high leadership positions in the private sector report that much

of their success is due to pure hard work and the initiatives they take themselves to reach those

positions (Nelson & Burke, 2000; Salmenkari & Järvinen, 1985). They also see that overachieving

is a requirement for success (Nelson & Burke, 2000). I doubt that this is much different for the

women with political ambitions, as the political world is still very much dominated by men.

It is very important to recognize the strength that women have due to their structural discrimination.

When studying violence against women, Gordon (1988) aimed to challenge the notion of women as

perpetual victims, but rather pointed out that women need bravery, resilience and ingenuity to

survive and rise from their situations, often with very limited resources. Similarly we need to rise

above the discussion of authority and wealth, and the power of the few, but rather recognise the

strength of the oppressed people (Deutchman, 1996).

In the spirit of this strength, the aim of this research is not to paint female politicians and leaders as

victims of their oppression, but to highlight the incredibly hard journey they have to go through to

become successful and the skills they deploy to break through glass ceilings. I want to discover and

pinpoint those skills and hardships, in order to shed light to the experience women have in politics

and in the hopes of aspiring more female representatives in political leadership positions.

2.4. Concluding remarks

As described in this chapter, the making of a successful female political leader is not a clear cut

recipe that can be put down on a piece of paper. The research indicates that women have to wade

their way through multiple obstacles to rise to power. These obstacles are often subtle and the

hardships come in many ways at different times, so success is a sum of many chapters, such as the

previous work done by women’s movements, the portrayal of the media, the image manipulation for

16

voters, the support systems present, and most importantly, the sheer hard work women are willing

to put into their careers.

The description of this journey is what inspired me to interview 12 Finnish female political leaders;

to hear their stories and experiences on their journey and their success. It is important to note that

not one story is identical to another, but they do possess some similar cornerstones. In the next

chapters, I will try to condense the power of these women into a narrative of my own: how these

successful female political leaders, our role models, came to be and how they endure the structural

hardships laid upon them.

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Chapter Three: Methodology

This chapter will describe the methodology used in this research. It will include the description of

the design, data collection, participants, analysis, limitations and ethics of this research.

3.1. Research design

As described earlier, the purpose of this study is to understand the perspective of female political

leaders in Finland. For this reason, a qualitative methodology was selected. More specifically, this

study made use of semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

In fact, the Jonathan Smith and Mike Osborn (2015) describe the aims of IPA as follows:

“To explore in detail how participants are making sense of their personal and social worlds, and the

main currency for an IPA study is the meanings that particular experiences, events, and states hold

for a participant.” (p. 25)

The semi-structured interviews consisted of four open-ended questions, each continued by possible

follow-up questions or prompts. The four main questions and examples of others are listed in

Appendices. In the end, none of the 12 interviews followed exactly these questions and in the right

order, as the aim was to flow with the interviewee’s narration. Semi-structured interviews gave

these women the flexibility to explore the subject themselves and take the interview in the direction

they preferred.

3.2. Data collection

Each interview was planned to last roughly an hour, give or take 30 minutes depending on the

interviewee’s schedule. The interviews were recorded with the “voice memos” application on an

iPhone 4S and subsequently saved on a drive. Additionally, the interviewer took notes in case of

loss of data.

All of the interviews were conducted in Finnish, in the interviewees’ native language, in order to

ensure their ability to speak freely and fluently about their experiences. One sample transcript can

be found in Appendix 2 in Finnish, as this research was privately funded and couldn’t make use of a

professional translation service.

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3.3. Participants

The participants for this research were approached based on their leadership merits. Many Finnish

female politicians were contacted based on whether they were currently holding or had previously

held a major leadership position in politics in Finland, such as being a president or a vice-president

of a political party, or a minister of the government. As the aim was to interview between 8 and 12

people, all of the 12 politicians who answered positively were interviewed.

The participants are presented anonymously and they will be numbered. Ten of the participants are

former ministers of the government, from the 1990’s until 2011. Two of the participants are current

and former representatives of party leadership. The 12 participants are from various backgrounds

and from six different political parties. Most of them are still acting politicians, but four have either

retired or moved on with their careers.

3.4. Data analysis

As explained above, IPA was used to analyse the results of this research. Although there is no one

definite way of doing IPA (Smith & Osborne, 2015), this research did it in three stages. First, I used

the interview transcripts to identify key words and phrases that seemed of interest to the research.

After I viewed all these key elements in the 12 interviews, I identified themes from these key

words. A total of around 20 themes were written down, but not all were included in the final

analysis. These themes were then clustered, so each theme became a subcategory of a larger

category. The categories were clustered more and more until this study’s narrative was found. Many

of the themes had to be cut, but all contributed to the holistic understanding of the participants’

stories. A sample of an analysis can be found in Appendix 3.

Once the narrative was found – how do these women become political leaders, who do they do the

journey with, and how is it to work in a political leadership position? – the exact quotations were

included in the clusters. Being trilingual myself, I translated the quotations from Finnish (my

mother tongue) to English (my academic language) to the best of my capabilities and without losing

the meaning of the participants’ experiences.

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3.5. Limitation

Like any other research, this study has to be critically analysed for its shortcomings and limitations.

Firstly, this research has very limited reliability, because of the methodology used. All of the

participants were interviewed between the months of April and July of 2016 at very different

settings. There was no consistency in the time and place of the research environment and

consequently the ambience of the interviews was affected also. Moreover, my personal involvement

and influence in the interviews should be noted, as I was already prior to this research acquainted

with some of the participants. While I tried to remain just in the role of an interviewer and take no

position in the interviews, there is no guarantee that my body language or other expression did not

affect the interviews.

Subsequently, this research cannot be exactly replicated; however it does raise interesting questions

and stories that can be further explored.

3.6. Ethics

The participation in this research was completely voluntary and each of the participants was

separately asked for consent of participation. Although the participants were prepared to reveal their

identities in the research, they were ultimately all anonymised to prevent any and all conflicts of

interest in this research. The participants were given the possibility to withdraw from the research at

any time and also to view their own material.

3.7. Gender identity

This research project uses an extremely binary language of gender, although it is very important to

state that this does not reflect the reality of gender identity or expression. All of the participants in

this research are assumed to be self-proclaimed women and want to be addressed with the female

pronoun. I would like to emphasize that although this research project uses the words

“women/men” and “female/male” multiple times, it does not claim to know how women as a

population feel or think. This research project makes a use of feminist theories and it is intended to

be an addition to the feminist literature, without in any way hindering the importance of experience

of gender minorities.

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Chapter Four: Analysis & Discussion

So, have women purposely taken over the men’s world of politics or have they spontaneously

climbed the ladder following women’s political liberation? Actually, the question is not so simple –

all politicians have different stories and motivations to be elected, but not all make it to the top.

Some may become members of the parliament, but never of the government, subsequently never

have the opportunity to rise to a ministerial position. Similarly, many may enjoy a considerable

amount of support from the voters, but less from the party and never reach the leadership of said

party. So what does the success of female political leaders actually consist of? In this chapter, we

are to hear from where twelve female political leaders have got their motivation, opportunity and

experience to rise to the top political positions of Finland. The aspects to consider in this chapter are

first the beginning of their careers, so how did they get involved and for what reasons? Secondly,

we take a look into the leaders’ surroundings and whether they have a considerable support system

pushing them forwards, and if yes, whom it consists of. Thirdly, it’s important to see what happens

when the women are on top – how do they work as leaders and do they face similar adversities in

their work?

4.1. How they got there

As we see from this chapter, the women interviewed do not reflect on the past political movements

that led to their rise of power. Because these interviews focused on their personal journeys, there is

no mention of the women’s movements, nor the distribution of power theories, nor the feminist

infiltration in the parties. It seems rather that these women reap what the previous women of their

times have sown. They credit their career starts to chance, to people inviting them to politics and to

their own passion that has led them to take charge.

4.1.1. Chance played its part

Many of the women state that chance has played a big part in their careers. Somebody invited them

and suddenly they found themselves being elected and ultimately selected for a leadership position.

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Many express that politics itself as a field is very unstable, but mostly their careers have been jeered

by chance, incidents and opportunities they seized, or that somebody else pushed them to take.

“Well … There was no plan. In my life chance has played a big part. And then maybe

also I’ve been able to seize some opportunities that could have not been planned.” –

Participant 6

“In politics, chance plays a big part.” – Participant 8

“First of all I can say that my so-called career has been quite a lot of chance,

always.” – Participant 10

“Well I’ve always kept in my life a second option, in the way that […] when you do

politics as a job, then it’s a matter of chance in the way that you won’t ever know if

you’ll be elected or not. There’s always the chance of losing.” – Participant 11

Since this research project is not a comparative study, we cannot hypothesize the differences

between men and women, but I do wonder if all former male minister or party leaders would really

accredit their rise to power to chance. Are women really allowed to even be ambitious? Since

ambition is viewed in such a negative light for female politicians (Hall & Donaghue, 2012;

Okimoto & Brescoll, 2010), it is not surprising that none of these women mentioned that they had

high ambitions to be successful politicians. Sure, politics is a gamble, considering you cannot

anticipate whether you will get elected by the public, but it is a well-known fact that politics is also

a game and with the right strategy you can significantly increase your chances for a win. I have

personally seen and heard the backdoor deals made in politics to elect certain people to the top of

the party ladder and these women are well aware of those games. These games are rarely exposed to

the public, unless a skilled political journalist writes about them. Of course a political win cannot be

compared to a promotion at any other job, but there are ways to play those deals in your favour. So

do these women refuse to take on the “power-over” style of male politics or do they hide their

ambition and power play because it is not a favourable image for women? If female politicians’

careers are so dependent on chance playing in their favour, one question arises: who would actually

risk their whole career on it?

4.1.2. A great deal of passion

So why are women in politics, if the success is as certain as a flip of a coin?

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“I thought this was the work I liked to do, in the old days you would talk about a

calling, when you can do what your heart burns for” – Participant 5

“I always ran because then you can talk about things and you can campaign for those

things that you deem important, but I didn’t think I would become an MP.” –

Participant 11

“The passion of politics mostly explains [why I’m in politics], because it’s like seeing

a fallen crying child on the ground with bloody knees, then you can’t just look at it

like ‘OK things seem quite bad, they seem hurt’, but you have to go and do something.

I think politics is the same. You have to do something; even if just try to make things

better.” – Participant 9

It seems to be a question of feelings. All of the women feel a certain passion towards politics and it

seems to be their driving force - changing the world, doing something good, making some sense of

it. Much less than a personal ambition, politics is a career of passion and drive.

Again, although I do not want to discredit the importance of passion and goodwill in politicians’

ambitions, these experiences are not surprising considering the communal roles expected of women

(Okimoto & Brescoll, 2010). Also, are all the women in politics then passion politicians instead of

career politicians? Even those who have been in politics for the majority of their lives? Women do

not seem to be able to come to politics without a driving passion and the will to work for their

communities or the population of Finland. None of them mention that being a politician is a career

choice, but an accident that played in their favour. We need further research on whether this is an

attitude shared by all politicians or specifically by female politicians.

4.1.3. Invitation to the party

Moving on from passion to concrete tasks; all of the women had been invited to become active in

political organisation or to put themselves up for election. None of them report that they planned on

a political career and that they took the initiative to be politicians, but rather accepted when asked

and their careers took off consequently.

“I attracted attention [in student organisation] and from all of this followed that

people noticed I existed and a parliamentary election candidate was needed and they

got me” – Participant 3

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“My former guidance counsellor asked me to join the municipal elections because at

the time they were building new spaces for youth.” – Participant 5

Whether it was a question of local, parliamentary or European parliamentary election, it is a

member of the political party that asks the women to be candidates. Not only that, but they were

also often asked to become leaders – either by specific supporters to become party leader or the

leader of their party to become ministers.

“It was specifically because I was urged to run for vice-presidency [that] I could ever

be elected as a member of the parliament. It gave me the credibility and fame that I

needed as a young woman.” – Participant 2

“I didn’t know I was [going to become a minister]! I heard it in the parliamentary

group’s meeting; they read a list of who will be proposed as ministers […] – I mean I

had the feeling that I would be put in a hard place [i.e. high position], but for it to be

a minister or something else, that’s always the question.” – Participant 12

“It was a huge surprise to me; I was completely dumbfounded [date] when I was

chosen [as a Minister]. At the time […] my husband said ‘but you don’t even own the

clothes for that kind of job’!” – Participant 7

Only one of the participants, Participant 9 mentions “I’ve always been a politician” but later on

adds “but politics isn’t a job”, again disassociating politics from a career. To recap, women may

have the ambition to become politicians due to their passion to make a difference, but they need to

be encouraged to do so and have a fair amount of good fortune. For these female politicians, there is

no indication of a strategic plan for their career in politics. There is no reported ambition to become

a leader, such as the Prime Minister of Finland or the leader of a party.

One possibility could be that women show such little strategy and planning in their political careers,

because they don’t categorize it as ordinary work and thus they rely more on their moral compass to

guide them. They seem to show spontaneity and passion in their work – not that they wouldn’t try

to be leaders, because all of them have been up for elections at some point in their careers – but they

insinuate a lack of the same type of career planning as any other employee.

Another possible reason is that women simply cannot report political career ambitions the same way

that men do. Firstly, the field of politics demands to take into consideration the voters and people at

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all levels, so personal ambitions cannot be flaunted for the fear of seeming self-centred or dishonest.

Secondly, women are held up to different standards in the eyes of the people and the media, to

which we will come back at a later time in this chapter. Finally, women face a structural

discrimination in the odds that they actually reach any sort of leadership position. Considering it is

so difficult for women to become political leaders, it is not surprising that with the resources they

have, they are more careful with the image they portray and the career they plan for. These are all

further ideas for future research: can politicians openly talk about their career ambitions and plans?

If yes, are there differences between what men and women can say?

4.2. Who they got there with

All of the women referred to at least some sort of support system during their career.

The women did list their role models when asked, but the role models seem to have had a bigger

influence once the women had already become politicians. A few of the participants had female or

male politicians encouraging them, but it seems that the female support systems and networks really

form at the parliamentary level, once elected as MPs. Also some of the women have actually started

their political journey in the women’s movements, but they did not put any particular emphasis on

it. Therefore the female support systems are not mentioned in this section, as it seems it demands a

more focused research on the subject. Instead, we will focus on the private support systems the

politicians mention – their family and their life partners.

4.2.1. Right at the beginning

To inspire a wake of political interest in the female politician, they cite two particular sources: their

schools and families.

4.2.1.1. Education

Many of the women cite their education as a beginning for their interest in politics. An open

environment in the school engages them in the society, but most importantly the schools’ student

organisations seem to be a stepping stone for curious political minds.

“We had student democracy very early on, […] we were being involved a lot and it

meant also that we had quite a free environment to talk. […] I think it has been very

25

important that there were those opportunities that I could be myself and they’ve

appreciated that I speak out.”- Participant 4

Schools are an important potential place to learn to accept oneself while also learning the basics of

politics. Many of the women started in youth and student politics, and then later advanced to party

politics. Freedom and encouragement are pushing women forward. It is up to the schools whether

they take on this role and further research into the influence of schools would be of interest. By this

take, I also want to draw attention to the point that schools’ influence and the level of education are

separate research areas to consider – in this case these women talked both about the compulsory

school level and higher education.

4.2.1.2. Family

As expected, many of the women have gotten the spark for their interest in politics from their

family. Either their parents were involved in party politics or they had open discussions during

family dinners. Some were from a long line of political families, such as Participant 7:

“My family background is a very social democratic one, my foster parents were social

democrats and we lived at the People’s House, because my foster father was the

janitor and my foster mother, so my aunt, was a gymnast teacher in workers’ sports

club. So I was immediately involved since I was little in the workers’ sports club [and

then] someone signed me up to be a member of the party when I was fifteen, it wasn’t

that special, it was natural.” – Participant 7

But some just needed a place to talk freely, not really attached to a certain party:

“It certainly comes of course from the family. […] At home we talked about things, my

parents have been active in society, but also been less active in society, but they

always followed and commented on [issues in society]. […] I’ve probably got from

home a relationship to the world, basic curiosity in a broad sense to very different

phenomena and a need to analyse.” – Participant 1

Interestingly enough, Participant 4, who is known for her feminist take on politics, also had a

mother who was active in women’s rights issues;

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“My mother has been active in gender equality issues when she was young and even

when I was a child my mother would say […] ‘Remember that you have to get a

profession and an education yourself, so that you can buy your own pantyhose!’ and

I’ll never forget it.” – Participant 4

As discussed in Chapter Two, it seems that families have a considerable role in fostering the

political interests of young people. Families are probably an opportunity to discuss societal issues in

a safe environment, where there is less peer pressure like in school. These findings support the

research of Campbell and Wolbrecht (2006) about the importance of family discussions.

In both cases, family and school, it seems that having a safe environment to nurture passion and

ambition is a key element in raising future politicians. To be able to have a space to wonder about

their political interest and try out their political opinions is also a freedom to be political and

understand the power of democracy. This might be even the preliminary step before joining a youth

and/or student organisation.

4.2.2. It’s a family affair

Almost all of the women mentioned their family as a major influence to their career. Not only were

the parents essential to spark their interest in politics, but also they continue to do so in their

everyday life.

“My parents have had a central role. I probably wouldn’t have run after the first

elections … […] but they’ve been my support and security, always encouraged me to

go forward, even when I thought this is going nowhere – I can’t, I don’t have the

strength – they’ve always been my support and safety.” – Participant 8

Children alike seem to be a huge contributor to their support system. Some of the women with

children were adamant about their family life to fit with their career, but found it extremely difficult

to cope with the stress and busy life of a political leader. In fact, it seems that upholding a work-life

balance while being a female political leader is nearly impossible. Many talked about the pain of

leaving children at home and about the importance of making time for their children. Especially the

former ministers had to sacrifice their networking opportunities and additional work commitments

expected of them to see their children.

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“They were 3 and 5 years old, so it’s purely that you want to be part of the children’s

lives and there were still all sorts of things to do and a lot of stuff in the evenings etc.,

so that was challenging.” – Participant 3

The issue of work-family balance is obviously widespread in other professions too, outside of

politics. It would be interesting however to see whether male politicians mention also their children

in research interviews as often and the same way than female politicians. These women indicated

strong commitment to their children, but they also made it clear they had to sacrifice something to

go home. Are male ministers expected home? Do they express their need to?

4.2.3. There’s a man

Consequently, many of the women mention their life partners as the source of support, help and

comfort they need to get through the busiest times of their careers.

“My partner of course, without him none of this would have happened. After the kids

were born, going through the everyday life wouldn’t have been possible if the partner

wouldn’t have been ready for the Mrs. to work mostly in another municipality.” –

Participant 8

Particularly male help seems to have been a key ingredient to succeed in their careers: the men

wanted to be committed fathers and didn’t abide to the gender stereotypes of the society. This

seemed to have liberated some women to focus on their leadership roles and give their work the

time and energy expected1.

“A good husband! We have, in our family, we’ve felt that politics has after all been

accepted by the whole family. When my husband was doing shift work, the good thing

about it was that he had longer periods of time off and he could be at home more and

the girls weren’t in day care. […] He could also take a job alternation leave easier.

[…] When the oldest one started school, […] in those kinds of situations [my

husband] could be flexible.” – Participant 5

Of course, male political leaders usually de facto have a wife to take care of their children and

usually they’re not questioned on their paternal skills. While male politicians are applauded for their

1 In this case, all of the women interviewed were or had been in heterosexual partnerships.

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enactment of fatherhood, female politicians’ skills and credibility are always diminished in relation

to their family responsibilities (Muir, 2005). In fact, as Participant 4 pointed out:

”I already at the time said that every politician, ever FEMALE politician, should have

a wife … In the traditional definition.”

It seems that for male politicians, it is only beneficial to mention their fatherhood in the media at

least, while women keep their family responsibilities quiet for the fear of not being seeing as

capable of ‘doing it all’ (Muir, 2005). From these interviews it is clear that the participants value

their families very much for support, but it also comes with its difficulties, that are alleviated when

their male partners participate in the work-family balance.

This means that if a heterosexual woman in a partnership would like to run and hold a leadership

position and their male partner would be very old-fashioned or patriarchal about gender roles, it

would be extremely difficult for that woman to hold the position fully. It seems that for women to

hold the highest political leadership positions, they also require an equal, supportive and flexible

partnership, especially if they’re mothers.

The role of a life partner in a politician’s life is not well researched enough and there appears to be a

considerable gap in the literature about it. Surely these female politicians are strong and capable,

but would they not also sometimes need help from their partners? And how much influence does it

have to have a supportive and flexible partner in your life, especially when they have children?

4.3. How they work

In this section we will explore how the women deal with the hardships once they are in high

political positions. We will explore their work ethics, their relationship to media and their

psychological strength.

4.3.1. Even the queen bee works hard

One of the most interesting parts about these semi-structured interviews is that the interviewees tend

to easily use descriptive adjectives about themselves that reveal their habits and beliefs, such as

their work ethics. In fact, many of the leaders described their work ethics in a way that have often

been associated with gendered working habits: they’re hard-working, conscientious, responsible,

democratic, amicable and sometimes quiet.

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“Then I was again so hard-working, supposedly clever, well I thought of myself as

clever and competent […] and I switched to a political career.” – Participant 3

“I would advise to be somehow hard-working and industrious.” – Participant 1

Additionally, many of the women attributed this tendency for hard work and precision to their

personality and nature:

“I’ve always been quite responsible since I was little, I’ve always taken responsibility.

[…] Presumably I accepted the job [as a minister] very seriously.” – Participant 7

“I probably had been grown into responsibility for quite a long time, and maybe it’s

in my basic character, that I’m quite responsible.” – Participant 12

Some of the women even mentioned that this is a much gendered way to work, that particularly

women tend to be so diligent about their work.

“Women as ministers, and now I talk specifically about ministers, as ministers are

more conscientious, work more with the ministry and see the ministry’s public

servants as colleagues.” – Participant 10

So, does a female politician need to be responsible and hard-working? What if they prove to be

something else than just a worker bee? Well, two of our leaders account for the flip side:

“I lost many times [debate/ votes] only because I was so overexcited and upset and

angry.” – Participant 4

“When a man is a willed politician (“tahtopoliittikko”), a woman is a difficult hag.” –

Participant 9

As hypothesized in Chapter Two, women in leadership positions do attribute their success to hard

work and their own self-made achievements (Nelson & Burke, 2000; Salmenkari & Järvinen, 1985).

It seems also that if women do not adhere to these work ethics – of being hardworking, amicable

and cooperating – they might lose their political capital. These testaments of relentless work clash

with the first part of our analysis about the women crediting chance as part of their success. They

simultaneously recognize their strengths but they still don’t take the full ownership of their success.

This might probably be due to a number of relating factors, but the feeling here is that these women

work hard and due to the perceived profile of female politicians, they leave ambition and strive for

leadership out of the interview.

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4.3.2. The role of the media

Part of the perceived leadership qualities in women come from the media and their portrayal of

female politicians, already mentioned a number of times in this analysis. Most of the participants

recognized the media as a negative influence in their lives and careers. Media seem to treat

politicians differently to rest of the world; they search for headlines and in the process pit each

politician against each other.

“My experience of the media was quite negative in the way that I thought it was a pity

that the media – if you wanted to be in the media as a politician - it was always

through confrontation, you had to criticise something.” – Participant 10

At best, some women didn’t feel like the media really represented a problem, but absolutely none

of the women said they enjoyed being in the limelight.

”In a way I have a calm and realistic attitude towards media and public discussion, so

in that way I can take it, or I understand it well that things aren’t always […]

presented the way that you want.” – Participant 1

Some mentioned the gender disparity by its name and recounted their very negative experiences

with the media at the time of their leadership. Women are criticised more harshly and their actions

more scrutinised.

“This is always in the eye of the beholder, but at least I always felt [that] a very minor

offense done by a woman is a huge thing, a much bigger thing […] than a much

bigger crime done by a man. […] I went through this, that in the 1990’s and forward,

those ministers that stepped down because [of wrongdoing] […] well they’re almost

all women. […] And it’s maybe not because women do more crime.” - Participant 6

Participant 6 is correct – while most of the ministers who have left their ministerial position in

Finland are men, that’s because throughout history most ministers have been men. Meanwhile,

since the 1990’s 4 of the 7 ministers who have stepped down due to a scandal have been women

(notably one of them was the Prime Minister at the time). So women represent then almost 60% of

them, even though since the 1990’s less than 45% of all ministers have been women. Consequently,

31

women are overrepresented – this could be due to many factors: how women are perceived in

politics, what is expected of them and how strongly they’re judged and based on what attributes.

The role of media in female politicians’ careers is a whole new research topic, but the fact of the

matter is that the participants in these interviews do feel the increased discomfort in the media. As

mentioned in the literary review, their concern is well founded and it is yet another hardship they

need to juggle. The media has a lot of influence over a politician’s career and here it might also be

an influence considering their family life, work ethics, and ambitions and so on. These participants

may not consider media so much as a threat, but it certainly demands an effort to be represented in a

good light.

4.3.3. You have got to be brave

Due to the aforementioned adversities the women face in their work, especially as political leaders,

they also have to show a tremendous amount of courage. Some women even mention bravery as its

own factor. Many of these female leaders mention that there’s a need to speak up, take some space

and be braver.

“Maybe politics you should try more to bring yourself forward and be greedier

towards the media, this is how you bring things forward.” – Participant 1

“I have to ask myself, did I dare all the time to stand behind my own opinions as

bravely as I do now? I’ve certainly grown to be a more independent actor in these six

years … and more daring.” – Participant 2

“You must be brave and you need to have the courage to open your mouth, take

action.” – Participant 12

“I would challenge more and younger. And this is where you need the networks.[…]

Women need to take those positions and place! Nobody comes to offer you a CEO

position in a Mother’s Day envelope.” – Participant 9

Although these words could probably be applied to all politicians, regardless of gender, it is very

important to note that these women mentioned courage as a very important source of political

success. As mentioned in previous chapters, women face structural discrimination unknown to men

and these discriminations also raise very brave and ingenious women. All of the women

32

interviewed are particularly strong, brave and smart to have reached the level they have. Some may

wish for even more of these qualities, but with the limited resources and experience that are handed

to them, it is particularly remarkable that they have reached the positions that they have.

4.4. Conclusions

Although I have presented a lot of criticism in this chapter, I would like to emphasize again that the

participants in these interviews show an astonishing amount of strength in their journeys towards

political leadership. Whether they credit their success to themselves, their support systems or pure

accident, it is they themselves who have collected enough experience and information to rise to

their positions. They might face a number of adversities during their careers, not all mentioned here,

but they have made the very best out of the resources they have.

Of course, these are personal experiences by the interviewed women and they are difficult to

generalise to theories or facts, but it seems that there is a definite shared emotion expressed by

female politicians that it is unfair how much the women have to endure and work compared to men.

The path to becoming a political leader is long and these women have taken political power into

their own hands by being passionate and brave, using their support systems and working hard.

33

Chapter Five: Conclusions

5.1. How women become leaders

From this research project, we can conclude that women who aspire to be political leaders are made

up of few core qualities: passion, courage, hard work and a steady support system. Politics is an

unusual setting for a career for its inconsistencies and its complete dependence on democratic

voting. In fact, comparing a political career to let’s say, any other career, is almost futile. Politicians

are dependent on voters, but at the same time people are dependent on having political candidates

that they deem worthy, and the measure of worth can depend on the political climate and the

pressing issues of the time. This is probably why all of the participants put such weight on chance

and on how arbitrary their careers have been. However, none of the women would reach such

heights without the ambition to aim higher and rally the votes behind them. Political parties seem

to be their platform to express their passion towards certain issues, and their ambition has aligned

the stars – or rather cast the votes – to their favour.

It seems that women are quite dependent on a working support system throughout their lifetime.

Their ambition and passion benefit from being fostered at a young age, building up their bravery to

move forward in their careers. Their parents and possible children play a big part in their strength

and resilience. Not for the least, male partners have a very big role in these women’s careers. Not

only are they a mental support, but they also share the housework and family caring responsibilities.

To go back to our question about how female leaders in politics carry on, it seems that it is mostly

hard work and resilience. Once at the top, women need to apply themselves more than their male

colleagues and they need to build a resistance to criticism. They need to be courageous and strong

to speak their mind at any occasion possible. To define female leadership in politics, it seems that

there is a core power in each of these women that is relentless and demanding. All of the twelve

women interviewed for this research are self-made political leaders in a still very patriarchal world.

It is apparent that although all of these participants are female leaders in politics, they are not

necessarily feminist leaders. Two of the participants recognized the need to support other women in

their careers, but as it was not explicitly asked about, it was not mentioned by other candidates.

However, it would be crucial to explore how female leadership is different from feminist leadership

and whether feminist leadership is more beneficial to women in general. The interviewees had

34

similar experiences and opinions about their path to success, but it was not evident whether this was

due to a particularly feminist environment.

For this reason also, there is a fundamental need for more female political leaders and also feminist

political leaders. Increased representation of women in politics has an effect on the political mind

set of young girls (Broockman, 2014). If the representation of women would increase, there would

also be a more valid setting for research on whether feminist theories can apply to leadership. Even

though at this time feminist power theories are not applicable, it is important to see if Finland’s

politics and policies would change with for example a long-term female Prime Minister and with at

least half of the parliamentary parties having a female leader. Much of the feminist approach now is

still hypothetical, because having feminist politics is more a hope than reality. What would the

consequences be of having women empower each other and men empowering women enough to

have equal representation and policy power?

The whole field of politics in Finland could and should change so that future political women can

have a chance of getting into the game and further evolving their political force. Only with equal

representation can we really examine the difference of political impact between men and women.

As long as women are discriminated in politics, they need to employ extraordinary measures to

succeed and they keep on being extraordinary examples, rather than full equals to their male

colleagues.

This research has given me hope that women can and will succeed in politics, but it is also evident

that the path to equal representation is long and hard. Leaving from my initial observation of

inequalities in my time in politics, I now notice that we all have a part in getting more equal

representation in politics: I have to encourage women around me in politics, I want to foster and

grow their passion and confidence, I should credit female political leaders when credit is due to

counteract sexist criticism, and most importantly, I need to mimic the energy these political role

models have and carry on trying to make a difference.

5.2. Limitations and future research

First of all, although this research focused on female leadership, it would greatly benefit from being

compared to male counterparts. It would be extremely interesting to have a comparative feminist

study of Finnish ministers and their experiences. Is the political world as hard for men? How do

35

they view the criticism of the media? Do they credit their life partners or their parents for fostering

their growth? Did they always know they would become political leaders?

Also, the support networks between women need to be re-evaluated. Although feminist women’s

movements still have a strong political capacity within the parties, not all women thriving in politics

have been involved in women’s movements. Has the role of women’s movement changed in the

Nordics through time? Can a woman thrive in politics without feminism and the support of

women’s movements? Are there more women’s networks in politics that are not apparent to the

public? Women’s empowerment is the key to understanding women’s solidarity in political

movements and it should be explored further, especially in Finland where gender equality is often

considered to be already achieved.

Moreover, there is a definite gap in the feminist literature about the role of family, partnerships and

friendship as support networks for women in politics. Not only do the women need allies in politics,

but they also need their mental support in their private lives. In the same way, the role of schools

and families could be explored to open up more educational possibilities. For example, would we

get more educated and passionate politicians of all kinds if schools would include more political

history, democracy and party politics in their curriculums? Would we have more female political

leaders if more men would be involved in family responsibilities and the whole ideal of parenthood

would be more equal? Do non-political friends hold any position in the growth of politicians? Are

parents really the biggest influence in the political evolution of women?

Much of the material collected with the interviews went unused due to word and time limitations. A

whole dissertation could have been written from each of the interviews, considering the vast amount

of experience the participants shared. It would be interesting to continue this research to see how

women in politics view power and political strategy – is it a game or does everyone get recognized

by working hard? A more extensive look into the power of media in Finland from the feminist

perspective would be of interest – has the media changed in the last 20 years and what is in sight for

the future? Can we see the growing numbers of women in leadership positions challenging the

status quo of political media? The possibilities are endless.

Another viewpoint that could not be explored in this research was effectively the test of time. In the

interviews it was noticeable that the answers varied between those participants who are still very

much active in politics and those who have either moved on to something else or don’t actively aim

for a leadership position anymore. Some of the participants were more poignant in their analysis of

their leadership times than others, perhaps because they did not aim for one in the near future.

36

Might this be because in politics women are targeted as “difficult” or “nagging” if they point out

gender discrepancies? That’s the theory, but it would be extremely interesting to explore it further.

Are women discriminated more if they speak openly about the discrimination they face?

All in all, this subject is endless. There is an infinite amount of research to be done about political

leadership in relation to gender, at least until women and men truly are equals in statistics and in

reality. I hope this research project has been able to pinpoint some key questions to explore further

in Finland, the Nordics and on a global level. The stories and journeys of these interviewees are

only the beginning towards and understanding of the political experience of women, and much has

yet to be done to reach political gender equality.

37

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Interview questions

1. Kerro urastasi – miten sinusta tuli ministeri/ puheenjohtaja/ varapuheenjohtaja/ etc.?

a. Mahdolliset jatkokysymykset: Kerrotko hieman lisää tästä ajasta? Mikä oli vaikeaa

tällä ajalla? etc.

2. Minkälaista on tehdä töitä kun on niin paljon vastuuta? Miltä vastuu ja auktoriteettiasema

tuntuivat?

a. Mikä oli vaikeinta? Oliko tämä helppoa?

b. Minkälaista oli tehdä töitä alaisten ja kollegoiden kanssa?

3. Jos voisit mennä ajassa taaksepäin, muuttaisitko jotain urapolullasi?

a. Missä olisit tämän jälkeen?

b. Miten neuvoisit tulevia poliitikkoja?

4. Onko sinulla joku johon olet tutustunut urasi kautta, ketä ihailet ja kunnioitat?

a. Saivatko he sinut mukaan politiikkaan tai pysymään siinä?

5. Jos jää aikaa: Oliko jotain mitä haluaisit lisätä?

Translation in English:

1- Tell me about your career – how did you become a minister/ president/ vice-president/ etc.

of ---?

a. Possible follow-up questions: Tell me more about … / What was difficult about … /

etc.

2- How is it to work when you have a lot of responsibility? How did the responsibility and

position of authority feel like?

a. What was the most difficult?

b. How was it to work with your subordinates and colleagues?

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3- If you could go back in time, would you change anything about your career path?

a. Where would you be now, after that change?

b. What advice would you give to future politicians?

4- Do you have someone you have come across in your career that you respect and admire?

a. Did they get you into politics or stay in it?

5- Time permitting: Is there something you would like to add?