Equality

Gender equality and non-discrimination plan of Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto 2025-2026

Approved at board meeting 1/2023 (25 Feb 2023), updated 18 Jul 2025.

1. Starting point and purpose

The purpose of the Act on Equality between Women and Men is to prevent discrimination based on gender, to promote equality between women and men and to improve the position of women, particularly in working life. The Act also aims to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression. (Act on Equality between Women and Men 1986/609.)

The purpose of the Non-Discrimination Act is to promote equality and prevent discrimination, and to strengthen the legal protection of those who have been discriminated against. No one may be discriminated against on the basis of age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relationships, state of health, disability, sexual orientation or another personal characteristic. (Non-Discrimination Act 2015.)

The purpose of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is to guarantee persons with disabilities the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. (Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006. Finland ratified the Convention in 2016.)

Under the Constitution of Finland, equality means equality before the law, but also the prohibition of discrimination and harassment. This plan aims to prevent discrimination of every kind, for example discrimination related to gender, age, origin, language, religion, belief, opinion, sexual orientation, state of health or disability.

2. General objectives

Equality, equal treatment and respect for people are core values that we want to promote both as an employer and in our work among our members, folk music enthusiasts. The purpose of the association is to develop and broaden folk music as a hobby and to promote cooperation among enthusiasts.

To fulfil this purpose, the association:

– Promotes the founding of folk music associations and supports and guides their activities

– Organises folk music presentation and training events

– Organises concerts and other performance events

– Carries out publishing activities and sells folk music related products

– Makes folk music activity known among different groups of citizens

– Keeps in contact with other organisations and communities that promote folk music

– Acts as an expert and advocacy organisation

– Promotes international activity in the field

– Promotes the association's purpose in other similar ways

Diversity, and valuing it, adds value to the work of Kansanmusiikkiliitto and helps it reach its goals as the body that brings together the whole amateur folk music field. To reach everyone in Finland interested in folk music as a hobby, people of different ages and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds must be visible in different contexts in the association's activities. The principles of equality and consistent conduct must be followed in all the goals of the association's activities.

Equality planning and its objectives are based on the Act on Equality between Women and Men, which concerns in particular equality between women and men in working life. The aims are a more balanced gender distribution in all work communities and tasks, equal pay, and equal working and development opportunities for everyone regardless of gender, ethnic background and the like.

Because Kansanmusiikkiliitto has very few employees, there is no genuine possibility for the staff to consist equally of representatives of both genders. Rather than aiming for a situation where the paid staff has equal numbers of both genders, it is more important to recognise and accept that this is not always possible. Nevertheless, attention is paid to ensuring that the association's activities are equal in all other respects.

The highest decision-making power in the association is exercised by the general meetings of Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto, where the number of voting meeting representatives is tied to the membership of the member associations. At a general meeting, each member association may appoint one meeting representative per every 50 members or part thereof. The general meeting appoints the board, which makes the practical decisions. In the board, decision-making power is exercised by the chair elected by the autumn meeting together with ten other members and ten personal deputy members. Through this equality and non-discrimination plan, attention can be paid to ensuring that equality and non-discrimination are considered at the association's general meetings, for example in board appointments, and that everyone in Finland interested in folk music as a hobby — people of different ages and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds — is equally represented in the association's activities.

The goal of the equality and non-discrimination work of Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto is for it to be part of the association's normal everyday life, activities and monitoring. To achieve this, the association will develop its equality and non-discrimination processes, communications and competence during the plan period 2023–2024.

3. Equality situation in spring 2025

Two of the permanent employees of Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto are women. One of the women in a permanent employment relationship works part-time.

4. Equality objectives for 2025–2026

Kansanmusiikkiliitto has not previously paid attention to goal-oriented, active equality work. The association has a small staff, which is why aiming for a balanced gender distribution among employees is neither possible nor even necessary.

In 2025–2026, particular attention is paid to ensuring that folk music enthusiasts of different ages, genders and ethnic and cultural backgrounds are equally visible in the association's activities and communications. To achieve these goals, the association communicates about its activities openly, understandably and with respect for diversity. In our communications we highlight different kinds of people from the broad field of folk music.

Everyone involved in the association's activities is of equal worth regardless of age, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability or other similar personal characteristics. We commit our partners to this principle as well. In this connection, we will also refine our guidelines for reporting and addressing inappropriate behaviour.

To promote equality, the association seeks to increase the diversity of its membership by giving visibility, where possible, to different ethnic groups at its events and in its communications, and acts to prevent discrimination and unequal treatment in advance. Through its own activities, Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto wants to be an example and an inspiration to the whole folk music field in promoting more equal and non-discriminatory activity.

5. Monitoring the plans and objectives

The association's board is responsible for monitoring the achievement of the objectives of the equality and non-discrimination plan. The board reviews the objectives as needed, but at least once a year.

Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto signs and implements the Finnish music industry's theses for promoting equity, diversity and equality.

6. Key concepts

Accessibility of information and participation

How do different groups of people find information about the activities and take part in them safely, regardless of, for example, language, physical or mental functional capacity or financial circumstances?

Participation

How can different people take part in and influence matters that interest and concern them? Participation describes an individual's attachment to a community or involvement in processes important to the community.

Diversity

How do the activities take into account and respect people's different characteristics and identities in a safe and positive atmosphere? Every person has many characteristics, backgrounds and roles, and many of us belong to different groups (gender, sexuality, socioeconomic position, age, place of residence, physical and mental characteristics, disability, appearance, religion, language, culture, ethnic features, political views or different ideologies and beliefs). Everyone should feel welcome as they are, without fear of discrimination. It is worth noting how the culture of minority groups is taken into account, for example, in the planning, provision, content and communication of services.

Inclusion

Inclusion is based on a way of thinking developed within the UN that emphasises the right of all persons with disabilities to belong to ordinary communities instead of being placed in their own separate service systems. Today, inclusion generally means belonging, membership and participation as an equal member, regardless of any minority status. (UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, 1993; THL, “What is participation?” 2017.)

Discrimination

Under the law, discrimination requires that a person has been treated less favourably than others in a comparable situation, specifically because of one or more personal characteristics. Under the Non-Discrimination Act, discrimination also includes harassment, instructions or orders to discriminate, and the denial of reasonable accommodations. The prohibition of discrimination in the Non-Discrimination Act is applied broadly, in principle covering all private and public activity. (Non-Discrimination Ombudsman)

Harassment

Harassment is behaviour that deliberately or in fact violates a person's dignity in a way that creates a degrading, humiliating, threatening, hostile or aggressive atmosphere related to a prohibited ground of discrimination. In this context, behaviour is understood broadly: it can be, for example, speech, emails, facial expressions, gestures, the display of inappropriate material or other forms of communication. (Non-Discrimination Ombudsman)

Physical accessibility

Physical accessibility is about taking human diversity into account in the planning and implementation of the built environment. It means accessible services, usable tools, understandable information and the possibility to take part in decision-making that concerns oneself.

Accessibility also means, among other things, accessible services, usable tools, understandable information and the possibility to take part in decision-making that concerns oneself. Accessibility is equality and part of sustainable development. (Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities)

Safer space

A safer space policy is a feminist communal method and an attempt to create practices that make people feel safe, take responsibility in uncomfortable situations, and an attempt to create ways to change those uncomfortable situations for the better instead of simply having to tolerate them. The word choice ”safer” rather than ”safe” reflects the idea that social situations are always interactive and open to misunderstanding: a completely safe space cannot be guaranteed for everyone, even though that is the goal. The aim is also to make people think about their own behaviour and intervene in situations actively. Creating a safer space usually involves shared ground rules that, for example, encourage avoiding assumptions about another person's gender, ethnicity or state of health, and respecting another person's physical integrity.

Norm-critical thinking

Norm-critical thinking means critically examining the prevailing norms in society, recognising stereotypes and discriminatory structures, and striving to change them. Norms create our understanding of what is ordinary and what deviates from it. Normativity makes people invisible. Those who deviate from the norms are not taken into account in discussion and practice; they are not seen in decision-making positions or, for example, on stage in the same way as others, and this often reinforces the norms further. Alternatively, those who deviate from the norm are often perceived as passive “special groups” defined according to stereotypical assumptions.

The term “tolerance” is based on normativity and does not question the norms behind discrimination. Equality, by contrast, is absolute and inalienable. Everyone is equal — of equal worth with others — as they are. Norm-critical thinking broadens awareness of one's own prejudices, and dismantling stereotypes helps one genuinely put oneself in another person's position.

Ableism

Discrimination against disabled people, i.e. ableism, appears as condescending or hostile attitudes towards disabled people, as violence, or as a lack of accessibility in the environment. Under chapter 11, section 11 of the Criminal Code, discrimination against disabled people without an acceptable reason is criminalised “in trade, in the practice of a profession, in service of the general public, in the exercise of official authority or in another public function, or in the arrangement of a public event or general meeting”. (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Criminal Code 1999.)

Today, the term is also used to refer to assumptions about physical, mental and social ability — for example, assuming that a live musician can perform on stage in front of an audience. It is good to broaden one's thinking by examining what structural assumptions are attached to a community or working environment, and to consider whether, for example, a music performance situation could sometimes be arranged differently.