Miina Sillanpää was Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

's first female minister and a key figure in the workers' movement.

Miina Sillanpää was born during the famine years to peasants Juho and Leena (née Roth) Riktig, who had a total of nine children. She started her work career at the age of 12 at the Forssa

Forssa

Forssa is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located almost in the centre of a triangle defined by the three largest major cities in Finland , in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Tavastia Proper region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...

 cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 factory, and later in the Jokioinen nail factory. At the age of 18 she moved to Porvoo

Porvoo

Porvoo is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately east of Helsinki. Porvoo is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from 14th century...

 to work as a maid and changed her name from Vilhelmiina Riktig to Miina Sillanpää. From 1900 to 1915 she worked as caretaker of the Helsinki Household Workers' Association's Servants' Home and Employment Agency. Sillanpää worked as inspector of eateries and cafés of Osuusliike Elanto from 1916 to 1932 and as secretary of the Social Democratic Party Working Women's Association from 1932 to 1936.

Sillanpää did not have much of a school education – she had only gone to a visiting school and factory school.

Sillanpää was awarded the honorary title of talousneuvos in 1939, and in 1949 she received an honorary reward of her life's work from President

President of Finland

The President of the Republic of Finland is the nation's head of state. Under the Finnish constitution, executive power is vested in the President and the government, with the President possessing extensive powers. The President is elected directly by the people of Finland for a term of six years....

 Paasikivi

Juho Kusti Paasikivi

Juho Kusti Paasikivi was the seventh President of Finland . Representing the Finnish Party and the National Coalition Party, he also served as Prime Minister of Finland , and was generally an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years...

.

As a social democrat

Miina Sillanpää was not a political theoretician, instead she was active in social democratic association activity. She especially campaigned for the rights of working and lonely women (in the 1930s she was intensely active in the Ensikoti activity). She was a member of the party activity group of the Social Democratic Party from 1918 to 1919 and from 1933 to 1940, and also worked as chairwoman of the Social Democratic Women's Association and the Social Democratic Working Women's Association.

During the civil war of 1918, Sillanpää kept a low profile and kept her recognition also among the bourgeois. Sillanpää was also involved in the municipal politics of Helsinki.

Member of parliament

Miina Sillanpää was one of the first nineteen female members of the Parliament of Finland

Parliament of Finland

The Eduskunta , is the parliament of Finland. The unicameral parliament has 200 members and meets in the Parliament House in Helsinki. The latest election to the parliament took place on April 17, 2011.- Constitution :...

, who were elected in 1907. She served as a member of parliament for a total of 38 years: 1907–1910, 1914, 1917, 1919–1932 and 1936–1947.

Upon election as second Minister of Social Affairs in the Väinö Tanner

Väinö Tanner

Väinö Tanner was a pioneer and leader in the cooperative movement in Finland, and Prime Minister of Finland from 1926 to 1927....

 government of 1926–1927, she became Finland's first female minister.

Sillanpää acted as an official elector of the President of Finland in 1925, 1931, 1937, 1940 and 1943.

Journalistic career

Sillanpää was also a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. She worked as editor of the Palvelijatar ("female servant") magazine from 1905 to 1906, in the Työläisnainen ("working woman") magazine from 1907 to 1916, and in the Toveritar ("female comrade") magazine from 1922 to 1943.

Literature

• Oma Mäkikossa: Yhteiskunnalle omistettu elämä. Miina Sillanpään elämän ja työn vaiheita. (Tammi
  Tammi (publishing company)
  Tammi is a Finnish publishing company established in 1943 by an initiative of Väinö Tanner, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland. In 1996, the company was bought by the Bonnier Group, and it is currently the third largest book publisher in Finland....
  
   1947)
• Martta Salmela-Järvinen: Miina Sillanpää, legenda jo eläessään. (WSOY
  SanomaWSOY
  Sanoma Oyj is a leading media group in the Nordic countries with operations in 20 European countries, based in Helsinki...
  
  -Porvoo 1973)
• Miina Sillanpään bibliografia. (Publications of the Miina Sillanpää foundation A:1. Vammalan Kirjapaina 1989)