Finland: First female leader

Maria Löfgren has been elected president of the AKAVA Finnish trade union confederation representing workers with degree-level qualifications such as lawyers, teachers and doctors.

Her election last month marks the first time a woman has been chosen to lead any of Finland’s three union confederations.

This is despite the fact that a majority of union members In Finland are women and union density among women is higher than among men. Half of AKAVA’s 611,000 members are women.