Clustered
around the head of the 68-mile-long Oslofjord, Oslo is probably the most
spacious city in the world. Its 175-square-mile metropolitan area
consists of over 75 percent forests and five percent water. Its fine
deep harbor, Pipervika, stretches into the heart of the city and from it
leave ferries to Denmark and Germany.
Finnish women were the first in the world to receive
both the right to vote and to have the chance to run for
parliamentary office.
Miina Sillanpaa, a former maid and factory worker, became the first
woman to be appointed to a national post—the Minister of Social
Affairs—in 1926, not long after women in America won the right to
vote.
Equality of opportunity is key to the history of women's
achievements in Finland, in politics as in commerce. In 1906, the
year of women's suffrage, Finland was still one of Europe's most
agrarian
countries. Ironically, the simplicity of this traditional lifestyle
made it easier for Sillanpaa to attain her position in the
government than in more advanced industrialized countries of the
time. Perhaps it was because on the farm, men and women shared the
labor equally.
In fact, Finland wasn’t fertile ground for the concept of the
non-working woman. The wealthy population was small and couldn't
sustain many females who didn’t work. In the first years of this
century, three quarters of the women who worked, worked the land.
Then women joined the work force as forestry, textile and tobacco
factories came into being. By 1910, they accounted for almost one
third of those in industry and handicrafts.
Finnish women who don’t work are rare today. By 1980, of those who
were married, 70 percent worked outside the home. Women hold full
time employment and don’t generally leave jobs to have children.
Nationally mandated maternity and daycare benefits enable women to
have job security and contribute as equal partners in society. In
Finland, everyone is entitled to nine months paid parental leave
which may be shared as maternity and paternity leave. Working
parents can also take advantage of municipal daycare for their
pre-school children. While creating the social and political
conditions for combining motherhood and employment hasn’t completely
eliminated discrimination from working life, it has made support for
women's rights and family values tangible realities in contemporary
Finland.
Every year about 95 000 people die in
Sweden and, according to the law, everyone must be buried. There must be
room for everyone in the cemeteries, therefore the future needs of space
have to be predicted. Because of this funerals must be part of the
planning process.
In
the early Middle Ages, driven by famine at home and the promise of
wealth to be had in other lands, the Vikings set out from Scandinavia to
conquer parts of England, Ireland, France, Russia, and even Turkey.
Bolstered by their successes, the Vikings pushed westward, eventually
crossing the North Atlantic and founding settlements in Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland in Canada. Read
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