Mari Kiviniemi served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2010 to 2011, after a political career that included serving in Parliament, holding ministerial office, and leading her political party. With a background in economics, she entered national leadership at a consequential moment, helping Finland navigate the aftermath of the global financial crisis and participating in difficult European discussions over the economic challenges facing the European Union.
In conversation with Laura Liswood, Secretary-General of the Council of Women World Leaders, and young leader Tiia Manninen for the Stories of Women Who Lead series, Kiviniemi reflects on finding her own path to leadership, understanding power as a tool for change, the progress Finland has made on women’s political representation, and the barriers that still confront women in politics and business. Her reflections ultimately return to a simple message for the next generation: be curious, believe in your own capabilities, and do not assume that leadership belongs only to a particular “type” of person.
There Is No Single “Type” of Leader
Kiviniemi’s interest in politics began early. Politics was part of everyday life in her family: her father served in municipal politics, and her grandmother and mother were also politically active. Yet despite growing up surrounded by political conversations, she did not initially imagine herself becoming an elected politician. She was drawn instead to the possibility of influencing decisions and helping create change.
In fact, Kiviniemi once imagined herself working behind the scenes. She considered becoming a special adviser to a prime minister a dream job and doubted whether her own personality fit the traditional image of an elected politician. She saw herself as reserved and questioned whether she was socially gifted enough to win votes.
Her first campaign changed that perception.
After being encouraged to stand as a candidate in Finland’s 1988 presidential elector elections, she began to understand that there was no single personality required for public leadership. Different kinds of people could earn the confidence of voters. She later entered Parliament in 1995, eventually becoming a minister, party leader, and prime minister.
Looking back, she describes leadership partly as a question of preparation and timing. Opportunities may arrive unexpectedly, and a person who once doubted whether they were “the type” may find that their experience is precisely what a particular moment requires.
“You just have to be prepared,” she reflects. “The day may come that you are exactly the type needed.”
Power as a Tool for Change
For Kiviniemi, power is not something leaders should shy away from. It is what allows political ideas to become tangible decisions.
She recalls recognizing this particularly clearly after Finland’s 2007 elections, when she played a major role in negotiations over the government program, including economic policy, taxation, and budget issues. Sitting at the negotiating table, representing her party and shaping what would ultimately become government policy, transformed her understanding of what power meant.
“Power is needed in order to make change and get things done,” she says.
It was not simply the authority of holding a title. It was the ability to take goals presented during an election campaign, negotiate with others, incorporate them into a government program, and eventually implement them.
Her background in economics became particularly important in this work. Kiviniemi describes her economic training as an excellent foundation for her political career, allowing her to engage deeply with economic policy throughout her years in government and later as prime minister. She also acknowledges that expertise in economics helped strengthen perceptions of her credibility in environments where women’s leadership was not always taken for granted.
When Women in Power Become Normal
Kiviniemi’s experience as a woman in Finnish politics was shaped by something significant–she was not alone.
By the time she reached senior political office, Finland had already seen many women serve in leading positions across Parliament, government, and the wider public sector. Women had occupied roles ranging from president and prime minister to ministers of finance, defence, and foreign affairs. That visibility changed the environment in which new women leaders entered politics.
Kiviniemi contrasts this with her experience interacting with the business sector, where women remained far less represented at the highest levels. She recalls sensing greater uncertainty from some older male business leaders about whether a woman would succeed.
During her time as prime minister, she held bilateral discussions with Vladimir Putin without any sense that a man needed to be present for Finland to be taken seriously. The normalization of women across different levels of government, she argues, helped Finland move beyond those assumptions.
The New Barriers to Women in Politics
Progress, however, has not eliminated gendered barriers.
Kiviniemi acknowledges that women politicians continue to face forms of criticism that differ from those directed at men. Research in Finland, she notes, suggests that men and women may receive similar volumes of negative feedback online, but the substance is different: attacks against women are more likely to be sexualized or gender-based.
She believes the environment has worsened considerably since her years as prime minister, when platforms such as Twitter and Facebook played a much smaller role in political life.
That shift worries her particularly because of its potential impact on young women considering public careers. Digital harassment can make entering politics appear personally dangerous in ways that previous generations of political leaders did not experience to the same extent.
“We really have to do something about it,” she says.
For Kiviniemi, responding to this challenge requires stronger regulation, greater international cooperation, and better media literacy. Rapid technological development makes both regulation and public understanding difficult, but she argues that societies cannot ignore the consequences.
Money creates another barrier. Running for office is expensive, and women may have less access to established fundraising networks as well as fewer personal financial resources because of persistent gender pay gaps. Once women cross the initial threshold and establish themselves politically, fundraising can become easier, she observes. But getting through that first stage can itself be a significant obstacle.
Leadership Through Difficult Decisions
Asked about one of her greatest accomplishments in leadership, Kiviniemi points to Finland’s ability to navigate the difficult period following the global financial crisis.
During her premiership, Finland faced uncertainty over unemployment and the broader European economic situation. At the same time, the country had to make politically difficult decisions about supporting European Union responses to financial instability in other member states, even when much of the Finnish public opposed providing such assistance.
Her reflections on those decisions also reveal something about her approach to leadership.
Leadership, she suggests, does not mean making decisions that everyone will like. The responsibility of a leader is instead to explain those decisions clearly, repeatedly, and respectfully—to make sure citizens understand both what is being done and why.
For Kiviniemi, communication becomes particularly important when leadership requires making unpopular choices.
Equality Beyond Politics
The second half of the conversation becomes an intergenerational exchange as Tiia Manninen asks Kiviniemi to consider where gender equality still falls short in Finland.
Although Kiviniemi believes the private sector has made substantial progress since she was prime minister, women remain underrepresented among the Chief Executive Officers of major Finnish companies. She points to one problem that begins much earlier:the gender segregation of career paths.
Young women and girls in Finland remain less likely to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, narrowing the pool from which companies in traditionally male-dominated industries later recruit senior leaders. Encouraging more girls to enter fields such as engineering, she argues, could therefore have consequences far beyond education itself.
Role models matter as well. Just as the visibility of women presidents, prime ministers, and ministers helped normalize women’s political leadership, visible female business leaders can widen young women’s understanding of where they belong and what they can become.
Kiviniemi also touches on a much darker contradiction in Finnish society: high levels of domestic and intimate partner violence against women. She argues that this must remain part of any serious discussion of gender equality. Progress at the top of political institutions does not erase violence experienced in private life.
“This is a theme we simply have to raise and speak about publicly,” she says, emphasizing both education among younger generations and continuous public discussion across society.
Curiosity, Confidence, and the Next Generation
Kiviniemi’s final advice returns to the lesson that shaped her own path into politics.
Young women should not decide in advance that they are incapable of doing something or that leadership belongs to somebody with a different personality, background, or temperament.
Instead, she encourages them to remain curious, search for the path that genuinely suits them, and trust their abilities.
“Don’t be shy, and don’t think that you are not capable. Believe in yourself.”
For Kiviniemi, the next frontier of leadership begins partly with that confidence: helping girls and young women recognize their own potential before social expectations convince them to narrow their ambitions.
Her own journey demonstrates precisely that possibility. The young woman who once imagined herself more suited to advising a prime minister, eventually led Finland herself.
The Stories of Women Who Lead interview series, with interviewer Laura Liswood, Secretary General of the Council, builds on decades of work by the Secretary General and the Council of Women World Leaders to document the experiences of women who have reached the highest levels of political leadership. By capturing these conversations, the series seeks to preserve the insights, challenges, and lessons learned from women presidents and prime ministers around the world.
Through these reflections, the Council hopes to inspire the next generation of leaders, illuminate the structural barriers women continue to face, and encourage broader global dialogue about inclusive leadership. By sharing these stories widely, the series aims to ensure that the journeys and wisdom of women leaders serve as both guidance and inspiration for those who will shape the future.