Gender equality

This is hard stuff. And a long bit to read. So be prepared.

Why I wanted to live in Finland? Gender equality is one of the reasons. I could feel it on my own skin soon after arrival. And I like it.

I don't need guys open doors for me, I can well do it myself. Unless I have both of my hands full of stuff from the grocery store. Then it doesn't really matter is it a girl opening the door for me or a guy or I have to deal with the door myself in case I am alone. No problem there. I'd rather open the door myself and earn same wage as men do. And I don't need guys pay my dinner, kiss my hand and then tell me that I should do home stuff 'cause I am a girl. I rather have women in the parliament to represent important social issues, like domestic violence (unfortunately common problem in Finland) or paternity leave. And I don't want to misunderstood. I am not saying that now half of women should be miners, lumberjacks and boxers. I do understand that men are (on average) stronger than women. And I didn't burn my bras.

This is quite an important topic for me because of my private experiences (raised with two brothers who were not forced to peel potatoes, do the dishes or clean despite having two hands as well). Therefore I am happy to see every sign of gender equality policies, decisions et.c. One of those decisions was an inspiration for this topic - about a male pastor who refused to work with a female pastor and was punished for discriminative practices. You can read more here.

The situation of women is still not perfect in Finland. We still do earn less then men, we still make more work related to household running or rising children but the gap is smaller in comparison to many other continental Europe countries. And I hope the gap will be eliminated one day.

At this occasion I wanted to bring up the issue of gender equality as a worldwide problem. There are many charity projects going on in the world and it is sometimes difficult to decide which should be supported. Already a while ago I came across "Because I'm a girl" report, picturing the situation of girls and women in the world. I was moved. And we can do something about it. I would like to encourage you to visit http://www.plan-uk.org/becauseiamagirl/theissues/ so you can see that the gender inequality is by no means a product of female imagination. It's a fact, it's about the numbers.

I warned you that it will be serious.