Gender and nationalism in Finland : the domestication of the national narrative

This thesis explores how different constructs of female are embedded in Finland's national narrative. Images and notions of female were important elements in the development of Finland's national storyline. This work examines how during the formation period of Finnish nationalism a particular female gender construct, that of caretaker, became the dominant cultural understanding of female within the national narrative. This concept of female afforded women a fair degree of power within the context of national identity and state development. Along with this power, though, came a particular understanding of appropriate citizenry for females. An ethnographic analysis of three Finnish women's associations illustrates the symbolic and practical dimensions of gender and nationalism for women in Finland, including the unique position of feminists operating within the framework of a Finnish understanding of the nation and the structure of the state.