Opening address by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the Helsinki Women Business Leaders Summit

Helsinki 26 September, 2002

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It is a great pleasure to be opening this Summit - and especially here in Helsinki. First of all, there is a general perception in the world that business has traditionally been the domain of men, one in which it has been difficult for women to establish a foothold. Secondly, we Finns ourselves and some others too have the belief that Finland is a model of gender equality. Both perceptions are partly right and partly wrong.

We have gathered here to promote an important matter, women's participation in the business world in general and female enterprise in particular. This is our common goal. At an occasion like this we have an excellent opportunity to exchange views and experiences as well as to create our national and international networks.

Looked at globally, enterprise on the part of women is an essential component of the basic structure of societies; if it is missing, the welfare of people and families and the preconditions for exchange collapse. Equally, enterprise is essential for women in order to safeguard income and wellbeing. The perception of companies as a man's world emerges only when we look at large corporate organisations. In big, well-known companies, the share of women in the top management positions is only a few percent. At this conference we will ponder why that is so and what we want to do about it.

But neither in Finland nor in northwest Russia, the Baltic States or the United States do large organisations represent any more than a small proportion of all companies. Women need advice, support and encouragement to become entrepreneurs. Establishing a company of one's own is also an opportunity to measure one's abilities and reserves of strength in the market - bypassing the old hierarchies. When a woman entrepreneur builds a company of her own, she does not put a glass ceiling on it. But the success of one makes room for other women as well. It is a positive epidemic, which spreads.

Entrepreneurs and business networking is an irreplaceable tool, which makes the benefits of organisations available without losing the flexibility of markets. Networks built up in this way also become available for the wider society to use. They are a channel for new entrepreneurs, and through them the customers, employees and other linkage groups of companies can have their own ideas widely spread and their interests protected. In the way that women emphasise learning, cooperation, interaction skills and networking in their business operations, they provide an exemplary model for the networked economy of the future to follow.

Why, then, am I so glad that you have chosen to gather here in Helsinki. Of course I am proud of our country's beautiful capital. It is also wonderful to play a part in building cooperation between Europe and the United States. Especially when this is being done with the cooperation being developed between Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I believe that Finnish experience can prove useful on both sides of the Atlantic. And I believe just as firmly that the Finns can learn from the United States, Russia and the Baltic States. On the whole, we can all learn from one another.

In Finland, small and medium enterprises have an important role as both promoters of economic development and providers of jobs. These companies provide about sixty per cent of all jobs, and the percentage has been growing clearly in recent years. The contribution of small companies, those with fewer than ten employees, to our recovery from the recession of the last decade was irreplaceable. In recent years, in turn, the emphasis in growth has shifted onto the next-biggest category of company size. Women's contribution to the business revival - measured in terms of growth in the number of entrepreneurs - was especially clear. Companies headed by women have proved to be durable and dependable employers. Employment and the prosperity that it brings cannot happen without enterprise. Enterprise is a social resource. A society's success depends largely on the success of enterprise.

As for Finland as a model of gender equality, the increasing level of participation by women in business has highlighted general shortcomings associated with enterprise, and especially enterprise on the part of women. The Nordic welfare model has made it possible for women to go out to work and through this to reconcile work and family. In this respect, as in others, the welfare society is a major competitive advantage for us on a global scale.

Although progress has been made, there is still plenty to be done. Reconciling work and family life - which is generally felt to be a problem in paid employment - poses a special challenge to entrepreneurs. The welfare services provided by society are often dimensioned to suit conventional working hours. In the same way, the social insurance system is as often as not constructed along the lines of the paid-employment model - and often fails to take into consideration that only women are capable of giving birth.

In our countries human rights are in principle the same for all individuals, but in practice they are not implemented equitably. In all countries women and girls constantly face a variety of obstacles. These include a weaker economic status as well as culture- and economy-related factors. All this makes it more difficult for women to obtain their rights and discourages girls in their attempts to build their future.

Although according to international conventions safeguarding and promoting human rights is the responsibility of governments, a thriving human rights culture could hardly come into being without an active and effective civil society. As for women's rights, women themselves are their most important resource. The role that women's and other nongovernmental organisations play is central. The opportunities inherent in cooperation between women are a key factor in the practical implementation of women's rights. Today, I want to highlight especially you, women entrepreneurs, and cooperation between you as a positive example. By sharing your experience and working together you have, in a natural way, broken new ground for women to act and their rights to be implemented.

I would like to tell you that Finland is taking part in many different ways in supporting the position of women in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and also northwest Russia. In recent years, developing enterprise on the part of women in our adjacent countries has become one of the central matters in cooperation with the so-called neighbouring areas. Also within the framework of Nordic cooperation Finland is participating in a variety of projects to develop the status of women. This will be of great importance as Nordic cooperation with the Baltic States deepens when they join the European Union. As the EU enlarges it is especially important to monitor compliance with equality-related agreements in the member states. Questions connected with the status of women must also be taken into consideration in cooperation between the EU and Russia.

Cooperation with our American friends is not happening for the first time in the Baltic Sea region. This conference can be seen as part of the continuum of the Finnish-American dialogue on improving the status of women that began several years ago and has continued from one administration to another. In 1999 we arranged a seminar in Riga on the theme of improving the status of women. At the seminar, a transatlantic dimension was successfully introduced into the cooperation being practised between women in the Baltic Sea region. Already in the autumn of the same year we held a conference in Reykjavik. As a result of this conference, a vast international mentoring project was carried out. This project was administered by the United States.

After that we met in Helsinki in 2000, with the United States also taking part.
The next conference for women from the Baltic Sea region was organised in the year 2001 in Vilnius and the series of the conferences is due to continue next year in Estonia. Moreover, a project promoting women entrepreneurship between Finland and Estonia is currently running. This project is financially supported by the United States.

In this conjunction I want to say a special "thank you" to Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter for her initiative to arrange this conference and the fruitful cooperation that is now a concrete reality. I am sure I may be so familiar as to say that without your experience of American business life, Bonnie, many things would have been a lot less lively.

I am convinced that there are as many success stories in this hall as there are listeners. I hope your experience will be of great benefit to each other.
I am certain that during these days new and valuable relations of cooperation will develop between you - and perhaps friendship as well.

Good friends, be proud of your work. Both men and women are needed to bring about gender equality and change traditional gender models. Both the individual and society benefit from equality.