Introduction: Education and the making of the Nordic welfare states mette buchardt, pirjo markkola and heli valtonen

Education, equality and citizenship in Nordic societies have received international attention long before any PISA studies. 1 The question of equality, in the sense of gendering aspects of work and education was explicitly noted by the Danish professor of political economy and finance, NC Frederiksen in his book Finland. Its public and private economy, published in 1902. The importance of education was further highlighted in a concluding chapter “The government of Finland and its future” in which he wrote: In the schools, as in other spheres, women hold very important positions in Finland. Their right to dispose of money earned, also of property at marriage or on coming of age, is not peculiar to Finland; but there is hardly any country where women make similar efforts to obtain education and work. Women of the higher classes do as much as those of their lower classes. The first lady obtained access to the University in 1870; in later years more than one-fifth of the younger students are women. It is not yet usual for women to hold high official positions, although they may be elected members of schoolboards and committees of public assistance, but they work in every department, and in many positions for which they are better adapted