Finland's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s and its effects on the society

Résumé du document

In the 1950s, while the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocks was at its beginning, most of the European countries began to rebuild themselves in order to recover from World War II and Finland was no exception. After this period of reconstruction, most of these countries underwent a social revolution, mostly in the 1960s. But Finland first witnessed a cultural revolution, which resulted a series of changes in the Finnish society. A number of factors have permitted this cultural revolution to take place in Finland. For instance, the fact that Finland became independent in the beginning of the century was not a coincidence. One would wonder what the elements of this important cultural change were. In what field have the main changes been? And as a continuation, we can imagine the social consequences which followed these changes in the Finnish culture.

Extraits

[...] In politics, women increased their visibility and influence. While there were of women in the Finnish parliament in 1952, they were 26% in 1979. These two decades have also seen the establishment of many feminist movements that highlighted the depth of the changes in women's cultural identity, such as Yhdistys 9 in 1966. In addition, in 1972 the Council for Equality was established to advise lawmakers on methods for realizing full legal equality for women. Finally, as we said above, Finland's religious communities experienced an important evolution too. [...]

[...] Scandinavian influences were the first to arrive, followed by those from more distant places, from Paris and the Venice Biennials. Moreover, a significant boom was experienced in Finnish architecture in the 1950s and 1960s, which also extended its fame to other countries. Finally, we could also observe changes in Finland's two largest religious communities, the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran Church. One of the main consequences is the role of women in the Church and in the Finnish society, what we will talk about in the second part of this work. [...]

[...] Finland experienced a real breakthrough of the modern consumer society[6]. All the cultural and social changes that we have just talked about made it possible for the women's role to evolve also. As we already know, Finland has been a very agricultural country until the Second World War. After this period, as life in Finland began to change considerably, women took new roles in the society. For instance of women with children below seven years old in 1950 had a real profession, whereas 40% were housewives and 40% were helping their husband in the agricultural activities. [...]

[...] After the cultural change that took place mostly in the 1960s, Finland has known a lot of social changes. The “cultural revolution” has had as consequences a new behaviour in the Finnish cultural life, and an evolution in women's role in the society. With the reform of secondary schools and university, the behaviour towards education has changed in Finland since the 1960s, but above all since 1972. Until the early 1960s, only a relatively small percentage of school children went on to high school. [...]

[...] Firstly, we can see by studying Finland in the 1960s that changes have appeared in many aspects of the Finnish culture. The most important changes have certainly appeared in the educational system, Arts, as well as Medias and leisure. One of the most important changes in Finnish culture is the school system, and the growing success of universities. After World War II, the country developed a three-tiered system of primary education. The first eight years were compulsory for every child[1]. [...]