Political science as a gendered discipline in finland

Abstract

In political research and everyday politics, Finland is often presented as one of the gender-equal countries. The Nordic countries, Finland included, top a number of gender equality indices indicating that women’s societal position is particularly advanced. Feminist research, however, seeks to highlight the issue specificity of such evaluations. While Finland comes out on top in terms of a number of indicators, there are other areas where Finland is a laggard. Gender equality in the Academy is a case point. About a quarter of professors are women in Finland but their numbers fluctuate a lot from one discipline to another. Political science has traditionally been very male dominated, and the notion of politics is perceived as masculine. This article provides a brief overview of the current status of women in political science in Finland. It revisits earlier findings about how political science as a discipline is gendered in Finland and evaluates their pertinence today. The article then discusses the current situation and evaluates the changed institutional context. Despite progress made in numbers, gender continues to shape the political science discipline in Finland.