Globetrotting champion of equality moves to St. Petersburg
"Women’s and girls’ reproductive and sexual health and their rights are the crucial issues. No progress can be made unless these issues are solved first", says Anne Lammila.
A conference. That is the somewhat surprising answer I was given by Anne Lammila, who left her position as an Equality Ambassador to become the Consul General in St. Petersburg, when I ask her about the most memorable moment in her work. Meetings and conferences are part and parcel of a civil servant’s everyday work, but some do leave a lasting impression.
Six thousand attendees, carefully selected speakers, and the charisma of the leaders of Women Deliver – the organiser of the conference – created an enthusiastic atmosphere at the conference that took place a year ago in Copenhagen. The conference focused on improving the position of women and girls.
“Not one boring lecture, not a single one,” Lammila recounts. The panelists did not have it easy: you were not allowed to give prepared speeches or to fiddle with your papers.
“Women’s and girls’ reproductive and sexual health and their rights are the crucial issues. No progress can be made unless these issues are solved first. Girls must be able to attend school and women to work without fear of being raped, without having to give birth to child after child without the wherewithal to take care of them,” Lammila emphasises.
The Copenhagen conference made it very clear to her that Finland should continue raising the equality issue. It is the basis for ensuring that women are able to participate in social and economic decision-making.
International role models
When asked about international role models, Anne Lammila without hesitation names Australia’s former Ambassador for Women and Girls, Natasha Stott Despoja. According to Lammila, this former politician is a brilliant speaker and always ready to seize the opportunity.
Lammila, too, has made speeches around the world: on the position of single parents in China, the situation of women with disabilities, women entrepreneurship in Russia, the prevention of violent extremist thinking through gender equality in Vienna, the role of fathers in Belarus, and many others.
The Equality Ambassador’s work has opened to her a broad perspective on Finnish society. This will be useful in her new job as the Finnish Consul General in St. Petersburg.
“I understand why our two countries are different and why it is important to keep these things in mind. I bring up the equality issue when we discuss the progress of societies. If there is no equality in society, there is no financial success either,” Lammila says.
She is glad that equality will also be highly visible in Finland’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
We need an equality action plan
Lammila considers it important for Finland to prepare a comprehensive action plan for what we should be doing in the area of equality and women’s and girls’ rights.
According to her, a good model for this can be found in Sweden, where equality is systematically incorporated in all activities. Comprehensive background research with surveys and analysis of results helped to form the Swedish Government’s objectives that are included in the operational and financial planning processes. In Sweden, the top leadership from the Prime Minister is committed to the objectives.
In Finland, equality is raised in the anniversary year of independence through the “100 acts for gender equality” campaign. It was launched by the National Council of Women of Finland and the Council for Gender Equality. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs was the first but, Lammila hopes, not the only ministry to join the campaign.
“Even though we have great equality acts, this is only a wake-up season. This is perhaps the first time people have stopped to think,” she says.
The Equality Ambassador’s work also involves the engagement of Government ministers in equality work. According to Lammila, that has gone well.
“Foreign Minister Timo Soini is a White Ribbon Ambassador for the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and acts for eradicating violence against women. That is important. As is also the fact that he regularly meets with women’s organisations,” Lammila continues. Kai Mykkänen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, is also an advocate for gender equality both in respect of development policies and in his Team Finland duties. There should be no delegations or panels consisting of men or women alone.
Ills of Finnish society
In Lammila’s opinion, violence against women is the shame of Finland. A model for improving the situation could be found in Spain, where the problem has been seriously tackled and the number of cases of violence has decreased. In Finland, 20–26 women die violently each year, while in Spain, with a population of 46 million, the figure is 45.
“There has been a huge campaign in Spain with the country’s top leaders participating. Spanish society no longer accepts that women are beaten.”
Another grievance is the treatment of transgender persons. The requirement for reproductive disability leads to forced hormone therapy and violates their human rights.
The distribution of family leave among parents is also a problem in terms of gender equality. The persistent division of labour into women’s and men’s jobs makes Finland a weak-looking equal payer. Lammila, however, believes that change is in the air.
Equality education starts at the kindergarten and gender equality issues are reflected in teacher training and school curricula. Also conscription training deals with gender equality and how to tackle and prevent violence against women, Lammila explains.