294 



WHERE WOMEN HAVE THE VOTE 



AND MORE. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF WOMEN'S 

 FRANCHISE IN FINLAND. 



I.-BY DR. TEKLA HULTIN. M.P. 



The question of woman suffrage was 

 settled in Finland in 1906 by a law in- 

 troducing universal suffrage for men 

 and women on equal terms. This re- 

 form was due to a spontaneous political 

 demonstration of public ooinion in 

 1905, in which the whole Finnish people 

 too part. It would not, however, be cor- 

 rect to consider the Finnish women's 

 political enfranchisement as the casual 

 production of a sudden movement or of 

 a revolution, as it has sometimes been 

 called. The fact is, that the way for 

 this reform was prepared long before, 

 partly by public discussion, but princi- 

 pally by the fact that for a long time 

 widespread co-operation between women 

 and men had existed in social and, dur- 

 ing the hard years of 1899-1905, even in 

 political work. 



A REWARD FOR PATRIOTISM. 



\\'omen's suffrage was generally 

 looked upon as the natural consequence 

 of granting suffrage to all men, and it 

 was publicly declared to be a reward 

 for the patriotism which the women had 

 shown in times of general oppression. 

 It is further to be noted that the Finnish 

 Parliament or Diet, as it is called, which 

 in 1906 passed the reform, was at that 

 time a class representation of medieval 

 type, which Finland had inherited from 

 its union with Sweden from the twefth 

 to the eighteenth century. In that as- 

 sembly, consisting of the representatives 

 of the nobility, the clergy, the burghers 

 or citizens of the towns, and the pea- 

 santry, not a single voice was raised 

 against the proposal to include women 

 in the universal suffrage. The F'nnish 



women thus escaped the painful neces- 

 sity of hearing men debate the question 

 whether " woman's predestination " per- 

 mitted her to drop a voting paper into 

 a ballot box. Nor was any lear ex- 

 pressed that the vote would unsex 

 women or produce a general sex-war. 

 The same law which introduced the uni- 

 versal suffrage changed thoroughl)- the 

 form of representation ; instead of four 

 orders of estates, each meeting sepa- 

 ratel)', the country was to be represented 

 by one chamber consisting of two hun- 

 dred members. 



HOW THE WOMEN NOTE. 

 As to the question so often asked : 

 " How far have women used their right 

 of voting?" 1 consider that the Finnish 

 women have done their dut\'. I'hey 

 have crowded to the polls in nearly as 

 large numbers as the men. Out of all 

 the women inscribed on the voting regis- 

 ter, 54. 8-60 5 per cent, have taken part 

 in the last four elections, while the per- 

 centages of the male voters varied be- 

 tween 649 and 705. The presumption 

 that women are devoid of i:!olitical 

 intere:-t has thus been disproved. 



GENUINE CO-OPERATION. 

 Opponents of women's suffrage often 

 express the fear that all women electors 

 misfht form a block, which b\- their 

 majority of votes, as there are more 

 women than men in most countries, 

 could dominate the elections. At any 

 rate in Finland this fear has shown it- 

 self quite unfounded. Women voters, 

 although there are about 60.COO more 

 than men on the voting registers, have 

 rot used their majority to secure power 



