For example, just three of the 12 permanent secretary positions belong to women.
Researcher Seppo Tiihonen from the Ministry of Finance says not much has changed for women at the Finance Ministry in the past decade. He adds that women did not begin taking top positions until the 1980s. In the 1970s, women began filling mid-level positions.
"Sirkka Hämäläinen from the Bank of Finland was the first one. She was likely one of the few director generals who had a doctorate. Anne Brunila came during this past decade," he says.
More Department Heads Women are more likely to get jobs as director generals than permanent secretaries. At the Foreign Ministry, women director generals are the majority, with women holding five of the eight posts. At the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of the Environment, women hold half of the department head positions. Meanwhile at the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and Ministry of Defence, men hold all of the director general posts. At other ministries, women hold one or two of those positions. "If you look at ministry officials who have advanced to department head positions, they have traditionally had long careers. On the other hand, it's been proven that although women have long careers they don't advance like men," Tiihonen says. However he says he hasn't favoured a quota system for women. "I have been sceptical about that. Still, certainly something must be done after decades of no action," he says. YLE