HELSINKI, 1940

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 121, 25 May 1939, Page 6

HELSINKI, 1940

FINLAND'S AMAZONS

OLYMPIC GAMES PUBLICITY

Those who,have been entrusted with the job of. producing the regular bulletins for the Finnish organising committee publicising the Olympic Games to be held in Helsinki, Finland, next year, and which are distributed all over; the world, ar/ doing their job with great; gustoi Besides;- being. informative,' the bulletins are bright and snappy; indeed, each time they seem to grow brighter so that, before very long there should riot be so many people thinking that Helsinki is little more than a funny'name or a mere collection of log-cabins and ice-huts. ■

The latest bulletin to arrive from. Helsinki goes a long way towards banishing any such thoughts; Helsinki may be the northernmost capital on 'earth, but the publicists give it an atmosphere and an individuality of its own—a modern metropolis that.' is almost a creation of recent years and where'the climate in the summer time can send the thermometer soaring to dizzy heights. _■'. . V :

One of the brightest offerings in this bulletin, however, is headed "Finland's Amazons."- It reads as follows:— '■

"The modern scientific approach to history has led scholars to the conclusion that the Amazons are a face real only in the imaginations of ancient superstitious peoples. However the Finns have reason to protest. There do exist equivalents of' the Amazons actually in the flesh—if not elsewhere, at least in Finland. Foreign tourists in the country inevitably . express astonishment at the extent :to which.! Finnish women enjoy equal footing with the men. Finland,, it will '\bej remembered, was the .first Ejuropean | ,country :to grant suffrage to. -women,• and in this respect was:.ahead of both' the United^ States and. 'Great Britain by a matter of decades. Already in 1870, moreover, women in Finland were participating in study at the State university, and by now there are more university students of the female sex in ratio to population there than anywhere else in the old world. The field of medicine has been widely invaded by the sex. .-; ' . A SHAVE Bi ''A WOMAN. "At. least every.: .other: dentist is a woman, and not infrequently a beauty. It is nearly impossible to get a shave or. a haircut except at the disconcerting, hands. of an enchantress; ■ Streetcar and bus . cbnducfdrs often wear skirts;' . Clerks in banks, post offices,; and other responsible'institutions are often adorned with permanent waves,! pondered nqses, and ruby lips, much to the embarrassment Cor something) of.-, visiting continentals; There are Finnish 'women with aw.e^nspiringly leugthy academic titles attached to their names. They have now and then beaten male competitors for professorships, not to speak of the poor male wretches failing of election to "the national Diet because of 4he 'unfair* advantage of feminine curves in fetching votes. ) : "Helsinki might be called the capital of Amazondom; for there, more conspicuously than elsewhere in- Finland, women can be seen carrying on trades and professions in offi|r countries the exclusive birthright "bfQn:^leS; vill al^ng the line down to carpenter^' and bricklayers. While no occupation is too1 dizzily high, neither is any too muscular and sweaty, for the Finnish Amazon!" ■■■ ■■;■