Finland’s Sanna Marin is now the youngest head of government at the age of 34 years old. Holding such a position at this age is pretty unusual in the European Union Region. However, so far, there have only been three women to hold an office of Prime Minister in the region.
As per international standards, her gender makes her a rarity. Sanna Marin is also one of the five female leaders among the European Union’s current 28 leaders. Finland’sUnion’sMarin manages a leftist alliance whose five parties are all led by women, three of what are under 35. Her cabinet will include 12 women and seven gentlemen: at 63%, this female share is the most formidable in the European Union.
To Finns, seeing loads of women in senior political posts is not uncommon. As with other Nordic states, Finland has been at the vanguard of gender equity in politics for many years. Forty-seven per cent of its parliamentarians are female, one of the most considerable shares in the world. Ms Marin is the third woman to become prime minister in the region.
According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, in a mass group, the proportion of women in senior positions in EU governments has edged up from 25% in 2009 to 30% this September. And the number of female leaders of state has grown from two to five this year. Although Britain’s Theresa May stood down in July, only three other women had taken office before Ms Marin, Austria’s interim chancellor, Brigitte Bierlein; Belgium’s prime minister, Sophie Wilmès; and Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. They join Angela Merkel, who has been Germany’s chancellor since 2005 are among them.
Ms Marin beat two other young politicians off the top of group tables. Ukraine’s Oleksiy Honcharuk, who is 35, was the world’s youngest sitting prime minister.
New Zealand’s Jacinta Ardern, aged 39, had been the youngest lady in such an occupation. You might say Ms Marin measured her run well: Sebastian Kurz, Ms Bierlein’s predecessor in Austria, was ousted in May at only 32, having been elected at 31. And none of these can hold a candle to William Pitt the Younger, who became Britain’s prime minister in 1783 at a mere 24 years old.