Anna-Liisa Korpinen ( Tiekso; 14 March 1929 – 20 September 2010) was a Finnish politician. She represented Lapland in the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral and Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that ...

as a member of the

Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League (, SKDL; , DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed due ...

from 1951 to 1974. In 1968, she was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs by prime minister

Mauno Koivisto Mauno Henrik Koivisto (, 25 November 1923 – 12 May 2017) was a Finnish politician who served as the ninth president of Finland from 1982 to 1994. He also served as the country's prime minister twice, from 1968 to 1970 and again from 1979 to 19 ...

, and was the Minister of Social Affairs and Health in prime minister

Ahti Karjalainen Ahti Kalle Samuli Karjalainen (10 February 1923 – 7 September 1990) was a Finland, Finnish economist and politician. He was a member of the Agrarian League (later known as Keskusta, Centre Party) and served two terms as Prime Minister of Finlan ...

's government from 1970 to 1971.

Early life and education

Tiekso was born on 14 March 1929 in

Kemi Kemi (; ; ; ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately from the city of Tornio and the Finland–Sweden border, Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and t ...

, Finland. She was the daughter of a

small farm Small means of insignificant size. Small may also refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text Arts and ...

er and a schoolteacher. She completed the Finnish matriculation exam in 1949 and enrolled at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

to study law. Around this time, Tiekso married Arne Isaksson, with whom she had two children, but they divorced in 1957.

Political career

Tiekso dropped out of university when she was elected to the Parliament of Finland in 1951, representing the constituency of Lapland as a member of the

. She was 22 years old when she was elected, and was the youngest representative in Parliament. She was re-elected six times, serving until January 1974. During her time in Parliament, Tiekso sat on several committees, including the Education and Culture Committee, which she chaired from 1962 to 1968; the Grand Committee, which she chaired from 1972 to 1973; and the Finance Committee. Her chairmanship of the Education and Culture Committee was the first time since the 1940s that a woman chaired a parliamentary committee in Finland. She oversaw a major reform of Finland's educational system, introducing a national

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

system. Tiekso was also a part of the Finnish delegation to the

Nordic council The Nordic Council is the official body for formal inter-parliamentary Nordic cooperation among the Nordic countries. Formed in 1952, it has 87 representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as from the autonomo ...

, and a presidential elector in the 1956, 1962, and 1968 elections. Tiekso was also active in local and party politics. She was elected to the municipal council of

Kemin maalaiskunta Keminmaa (; until 1979 ''Kemin maalaiskunta''; ; ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located near the towns of Kemi and Tornio in the Lapland (Finland), Lapland region. The municipality has a population of () and co ...

between 1954 and 1968. She was a member of the

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland (, SKP; ) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by the state from its founding and did not participate in any elec ...

's central committee and a deputy chair of the Finnish People's Democratic League. In 1968, Tiekso was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs by prime minister

. She was the only woman to hold a position in Koivisto's first cabinet, and was reappointed as Minister of Social Affairs and Health by prime minister

in 1970. As minister, she introduced legislation to provide pensions to

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

s and self-employed workers. She resigned, along with the rest of the cabinet, in 1971 after a major internal disagreement over

price controls Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of go ...

on coffee, cigarettes, and sugar.

Later life and death

Tiekso resigned from Parliament in 1974 to become the assistant director of occupational safety and health at the manufacturing company

Rautaruukki Rautaruukki Oyj, using the marketing name Ruukki, is a Finnish company, headquartered in Helsinki, which manufactures and supplies metal-based components and systems to the construction and engineering industries. In 2014 Swedish SSAB bought Ru ...

. She married , a member of Parliament, in 1975 and moved to

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

, where she continued working at Rautaruukki. She retired from her career in 1982, and headed , the national pensioners' organization in Finland, from 1984 to 1994. She died on 20 September 2010 in Kemi, at the age of 81.

References

Early life and education

Political career

Later life and death

See also

References