The Women’s Liberation Phenomenon Begins to Inspire Local Discussion of the Woman Question, 1968–1974

In this chapter, I will analyse the gradual localisation of the discussion of the women’s liberation phenomenon between 1968 and 1974. I will begin by analysing the role of women’s magazines and newspapers’ women’s and family pages in giving public voice to feminist concerns, as well as the ways in which newspapers localised the discussion of women’s liberation. After this, I will discuss the visits to Finland in 1972 by Germaine Greer, author of the feminist classic The Female Eunuch, and Esther Vilar, German author of the popular anti-feminist book Der dressierte Mann (translated into English as The Manipulated Man), and I will analyse their impact on local negotiations of feminism and its relevance. The chapter will also demonstrate that the local discussion at first gave the most weight to the prominent Finnish-Swedish journalists and political figures Karmela Bélinki and Jutta Zilliacus, whom the Finnish print media at this time labelled Finland’s leading women’s liberationists.