Gender and nationalism in Finland in the early nineteenth century

Using Finnish language newspaper texts from 1830 through 1860, I analyze the intersection of gender and nationalism in Finnish nationalist discourse. Firstly, I discuss the creation of the public sphere through the organization of voluntary associations among the gentry. Women and men created separate associations, and even when women were invited to participate in the men's associations, the coexistence of the genders was contentious. Furthermore, gentry women's activities were not considered 'national activities' but belonged to a different, private sphere. Secondly, I analyze the discussion pertaining to the reform of the elementary education system. The discussion concerned women in two ways: firstly, the papers asserted that it was important to educate girls because they were the future mothers of the nation; secondly, they suggested that gentry women would make perfect teachers. Educating girls was generally not objected to, but gentry women becoming teachers was; it was considered inappropriate for them to work outside of the domestic sphere. Had it not been for the argument that many unmarried gentry women lacked a sufficient income, the ideological objections might have prevented them from entering the profession. Moreover, the idea that as teachers women would be serving the nation made it easier to justify their entrance. Thirdly, I discuss the development of the concept nainen, a general category of women encompassing both married and unmarried women from all social strata. Before the early 19th century, both nainen and waimo, which today means 'wife', referred to an adult married woman. In the mid-19th century, nainen takes on the meaning 'woman' and waimo the meaning 'wife'. The development of the concept nainen was connected to nationalism, the need to create a general category of 'Finnish women', as well as to the creation of a new gender order that emphasized gender differences over differences of rank. As the newspaper discussions indicate, there was a process of renegotiation of the gender order going on. This renegotiation was intimately tied to the creation of the Finnish nation, and therefore we cannot understand the creation of the new nation without considering the creation of the new gender order.