HBO Max has launched a docuseries titled The First Five, with the titular figures being the five party leaders of the coalition government led by Sanna Marin. You can find the trailer here.
A government led by an all-women set of leaders was hailed by foreign press as groundbreaking, and the series sets out to explore the challenges faced by them in their role and in the unprecedented times of their mandate.
This brings the spotlight on The Women Who Run Finland, our non-fiction title that dives deep into the behind-the-scenes. As the authors Vappu Kaarenoja and Aurora Rämö emphasize, all-female led governments don’t just spring up from nothing.
Finnish women were the first in Europe to gain the right to vote, Finland enjoyed a dozen successful years under a woman president, and women ministers have since been been a relevant part of the political life of the country.
News of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s freshly appointed team made American talk show hosts contemplate if the remote Nordic country was actually the stuff of an alternate Wonder Woman universe and the truth, while not quite as supernatural, is just as thrilling.