Riitta Martikainen

1
Gender Equality in Finland 6.3.2008 Barcelona,
Catalunya

• Riitta Martikainen
• Ministerial Counsellor,
• Gender Equality Affairs
• Gender Equality Unit

2
Governments gender equality policy

• The Government as a whole is responsible for
  promoting gender equality.
• Minister of Culture and Sports has gender
  equality issues in his portfolio
• Female majority in the government 20 ministers,
  11 women and 9 men

3
Goals of the gender equality policy

• equal pay for men and women
• advancement of womens careers and promotion of
  women into managerial positions
• mainstreaming of the gender perspective in all
  policies
• reduction of gender-based segregation of the
  labour market
• reconciliation of work and family life
• promoting awareness of gender equality in schools
• Government prepares Action Plan for Gender
  Equality

4
Pay differences

• The pay gap between women and men is about 20
• Women participate in paid work very actively
• Employment rate for women is 68 and for men 71
  
• 19 of women and 8 of men work part time
• 20 of women and 13 of men have fixed-term
  work
• Average level of education is higher for women
  than for men, high level of gender segregation

5
Equal Pay Programme (1)

• The Governments goal is to clearly reduce the
  differences in pay between men and women
• The Government is committed to the tripartite
  equal pay programme
• The Equal Pay Programme started in 2006
• All the central labour market central
  organisations are involved in the programme

6
Equal Pay Programme (2)

• Main aim of the programme is to narrow the pay
  gap from 20 to 15 by the year 2015
• Other objectives are related to
• payroll systems
• segregation of the labour market
• collective agreements
• family and work
• womens career advancement

7
The Act on Equality between Women and Men

• Entry in 1987, revised and amended several times
• Objectives of the act
• To prevent direct and indirect discrimination
  based on gender
• To promote equality between women and men
• To improve the status of women, particularly in
  working life

8
More about the Equality Act

• all public authorities must promote gender
  equality as part of their official duties
• quotas
• in Government committees, boards,working groups
  etc.
• and in municipal bodies at least 40 of
  both men and women
• no quotas in private companies

9
Gender Equality Planning at Workplaces

• The Equality Act obliges all employers to promote
  gender equality (recruitment, promotion, pay
  etc.)
• employers with workforce of 30 or more are
  required to draw up a gender equality plan
• pay survey must be done as part of the equality
  plan
• information on the pay of women and men employed
  by an employer
• if pay discrimination is found, it must be
  rectified

10
Female leadership

• one of focuses of the Governments gender Equality
  Policy
• less than tenth of the chief executive officers
  (CEO)are women
• less than fourth of corporate board members are
  women
• new research results company led by a female CEO
  is on average about 10 more profitable
• the share of female board members has a similar
  positive impact