Finland’s new prime minister Sanna Marin news travelled rapidly across the world due to her gender and her age. The new Prime Minister’s age is notable. At 34 years old, she is the youngest prime minister in the world. She joined the recently elected prime ministers of New Zealand, Salvador, and Ukraine in the under 40 years-old groups.

Then there has been a focus on gender. The new female prime minister’s coalition government was formed with all five party leaders being women - the majority being under 40-years of age, also. A photograph of the new prime minister with three of her women cabinet members (all in their thirties) quickly made the headlines. Less encouraging and sarcastic voices suggested that “given all the gender talk” the photo lacked “gender-balance”.

Feminists across countries applauded and congratulated the new prime minister inspired what might promise more change and innovative solutions to come. Others were more critical. How could such an “inexperienced” woman be entrusted with all that power? Sexist tendencies could also be observed: maybe not unexpected, some (mainstream) media coverage commented on the looks of the new Finnish Prime Minister. The German Tagesschau, for example, received much push-back on social media for having referred to Prime Minister Sanna Marinas ”beautiful & young” (“hübsch & Jung”).

How did Finland get there? Below are some key takeaways.

The pipeline matters. Finland has continued to rank high on theWorld Economic Forum’s Annual Gender Gap Report Index. In 2018, Finland occupied place 4 of 149 ranked countries. Notable is the country’s overall high - and also gender-equal - achievements in health and education that have contributed to women’s high economic and political participation. Finland’s cabinet features a significant number of women: twelve portfolios are represented by women, only seen by men. Marin herself was previously Minister of Transport.

Moreover, almost half (47%) of the country’s parliamentarians, are women. Finland is joined by European parliaments in Belgium, Spain, and Sweden which the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) considers being gender-balanced - that is at least 40% of each gender. Compare this to Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, and Malta where women account for less than 20% of parliamentarians (EIGE’s 2019 Gender Equality Index).