Gender pay gap a major challenge for gender equality policy

Gender equality issues in Finland are regarded as of crucial importance and are subject to continual intervention by government, in particular to target areas in which progress has been difficult. "For example, the gender pay gap remains even though there has been some small positive developments on equal pay," says Senior Officer Eeva Raevaara, secretary of the working group on the government's gender equality action plan.

"Issues of working life and training are a strong part of Finland's equality policy," says Raevaara, "and they remain highly topical. Working life is undergoing much upheaval and the challenges concerning gender equality are in flux."

The government is preparing a new gender equality action plan, replacing the previous action plan that ran from 2008-2011. The action plan, drafted by an inter-ministerial working group led by MSAH Permanent Secretary Kari Välimäki, is based on  two policy agendas: the programme of the current government and its stipulations on gender equality, and crucially the Government Report on Gender Equality, which Parliament approved in October 2010.

The Government Report examines the objectives and measures of the government's gender equality policy that has been pursued over the past ten years. Of key importance in the report are the outlines for the future gender equality policy in Finland until the year 2020.

They include proposals for extending the gender equality planning requirement to basic education, reinforcing gender mainstreaming in higher education and science policy, enhancing gender perspective in extending working careers as well as introducing solutions for reconciling work and family life into different phases of life

"Gender equality policy seeks to take up issues that it has not included in the past. For instance, a new aspect is the inclusion of a gender perspective in economic policy, particularly the impact of taxation policy on the financial equality of women and men," Raevaara explains.

Across the EU the problem of the gender pay gap has proven difficult to shift. One reason is that there are several or more causes of the gap, some requiring fairly straightforward changes to workplace practices, others demanding more systemic changes.

In Finland the pay gap has persisted despite palpable improvements in other areas of gender equality. According to the MSAH's periodic Equality Barometer of 2008, though the majority of wage and salary earners find that gender equality at work is realized well or fairly well, women continue to experience their gender as more of a disadvantage than men do. This inequality is most visible in questions concerning pay, recognition of professional skill and career advancement.

The part of the government programme dealing with gender equality specifically aims to address issues related to this workplace inequality. The government programme highlights reducing the segregation of the labour market, which is one reason why women are often in lower paid jobs than men. This in part will be done through the government's "planning and development work related to education and training policy" and "cooperation with its social partners in order to boost women's career development.

Another key area of the gender equality action plan is its focus on reducing poverty, inequality and social exclusion. This work, Eeva Raevaara stresses, also demands a gender perspective.

The problem affects young people as a whole, but it is young men who are particularly vulnerable. The government's proposed social guarantee for young people will be implemented so that each young person under 25 and recently graduated people under 30 will be offered a job, on-the-job training, a study place, or a period in a workshop or rehabilitation within three months of becoming unemployed.

"Some men are at particular risk of social exclusion," says Raevaara, "and there is a large number of young men who are left out of training programmes and the labour market. As we develop the social guarantee for young people, we need to consider the sorts of impacts that decision making has on gender specific issues."

This approach is the cornerstone of gender mainstreaming, which involves assessing the gender impacts of amendments and reforms to legislation while it is being amended. For example the new Integration Act on integrating immigrants into Finnish society has been assessed in terms of its gender impact

"At the same time we cannot close our eyes and ears to the fact that Finnish society is in transition. Women cannot be considered as a homogenous group, and similarly there are major differences in men's circumstances. Vulnerable groups may easily get overlooked, such as people on low incomes, women of immigrant background looking after children at home. Gender equality policy also affects indigenous minorities," says Raevaara

Gender equality encompasses a wide variety of intricate issues. A few years ago people started using the term ‘multiple discrimination'.

"A good gender equality policy is not just a policy of strong men and women that promotes the equality of certain people or a particular group. The problems facing those in the most vulnerable groups must be identified."

Though gender equality policy recognizes that not enough women are in leading positions in society, the 2000s have seen significant progress on previous years. At local level, Finnish municipalities have seen an increase in women in leading local government positions, due to legislation on gender quotas.

Raevaara says that the major changes taking place in local government entail a challenge concerning gender equality. "Now that we face a large-scale reform of the municipal system, it's important that we see whether or not the positive development in women's involvement in municipal decision-making will continue."

Irma Heiskanen-Haarala and Mark Waller