War, Revolution, and the Expansion of Women’s Political Citizenship in Finland

The paper builds on previous research to show how Finland became the first country in Europe to allow for suffrage for both men and women and the first country in the world where women won seats in national legislative office. The paper uses the Finnish case to show how war and the end of empire have often been catalysts for the expansion of women’s rights, particularly when there is a shakeup in the political elite, changing international gender norms, and where there is a pre-existing women’s movement seeking fundamental changes. It describes a series of cascading events beginning with the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, followed by the 1905 revolution in Russia and Finland, and efforts to obtain Finnish independence from Russia as the empire dissolved. These events created opportunity structures for the expansion of suffrage in Finland and later Russia. The pattern of events in Finland following war and leading to women’s suffrage are evident in the other post World War I cases. The overall patterns linking war and the end of empire to the expansion of women’s citizenship are evident with the later demise of the British, French and Portuguese empires after World War II.