【马特焕新】女性政治家：塔里娅·哈洛宁

                
                
Tarja Kaarina Halonen is a Finnish lawyer who was the 11th President of Finland, serving from 2000 to 2012. The first female to hold the office, Halonen had previously been a member of the parliament from 1979 to 2000 until her election to the presidency. In addition to her political career, she had a long and extensive career in trade unions and different non-governmental organizations.
Halonen is a graduate of the University of Helsinki, where she studied law from 1963 to 1968. She was active in student politics and served as the Social Affairs Secretary and Organization Secretary of the National Union of Students from 1969 to 1970. In 1971 she joined the Social Democratic Party and worked as a lawyer in the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions until she was elected to parliament in 1979.
Halonen served in the parliament of Finland for six terms, from 1979 to 2000, representing the constituency of Helsinki. She also had a long career in the city council of Helsinki, serving there from 1977 to 1996. She started her campaign for the presidency at the beginning of 1999 after President Martti Ahtisaari announced that he would not stand for a second term in the office. She easily won her party's nomination, and eventually got 40% of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections, and 51.6% in the second, thus defeating the Centre Party's Esko Aho and becoming the 11th president of Finland.
During the time of her presidency she has been extremely popular among Finns: her approval ratings rose and reached a peak of 88% in December 2003. Even though her ratings were so good, she was not re-elected in the first round in the next presidential elections in 2006. She beat National Coalition Party candidate Sauli Niinistö in the second round by 51.8% against 48.2%. Ineligible to run in the 2012 presidential elections due to term limits, Halonen left office on 1 March 2012.
Halonen is widely known for her interest in human rights issues. In 1980–81 Halonen served as the chairman of Seta, the main LGBT rights organization in Finland. During her presidency, she has participated actively in discussion of women's rights and problems of globalization. In 2006, she was mentioned by many sources as a potential candidate for the United Nations Secretary-General selection, but later she stated that she wanted to finish her term as president before thinking about other career options. Halonen is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. In 2009, Forbes named her among the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world.
Early life and career
Tarja Halonen was born on 24 December 1943 in the district of Kallio which is a traditional working-class area in central Helsinki. Her mother Lyyli Elina Loimola was a set-dresser and her father Vieno Olavi Halonen worked as a welder. Halonen's parents married each other at the beginning of World War II and Tarja was born a few years later. Vieno Halonen was at the frontline and Lyyli Halonen was working in a shoe factory when their daughter was born. After the war the couple decided to get a divorce, and in 1950 Lyyli Halonen married her new husband Thure Forss, who worked as an electrician and was very active in the working-class community.
Both Halonen's mother and her stepfather influenced her world view extensively. Halonen later said that her mother was a true survivor, always an extremely active and resilient person who valued good, honest and modest hardworking people. When she entered politics, Halonen stated that these are also the qualities and attributes she respects in people.
In 1950 she began her studies in Kallio Elementary school from where she later moved to Kallio Gymnasium and finally finished her matriculation examination in 1962. She began to study Art History in the University of Helsinki in 1962 but in autumn 1963 she changed her studies to law, and obtained her Master of Laws degree in 1968 specializing in criminal law.
She began to work as a lawyer, already before obtaining her degree, in a credit surveillance company Luotonvalvonta oy in 1967. After working there for a few years, she was hired by the National Union of University Students in Finland to work as a Social Affairs and General Secretary from 1969 to 1970. Her work in the Union spurred her interest in politics, and in 1970 she obtained a post as a lawyer in the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, being the first female ever to work as a lawyer in the Union.
Trade unionist
In 1971 she decided to join the Social Democratic Party of Finland which had close ties with the trade unions where she worked as a lawyer from 1970 to 1974.
In early 1970 she was elected to represent Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions in a committee that called for the recognition of the German Democratic Republic. Later she became the Vice-President of the committee, which lobbied then-President Urho Kekkonen. During the presidential elections of 2006 she was criticized by rivals for this. She responded that the committee was formed by members from many different political parties including conservative parties. In 1973 Finland recognized both the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany.
First term in office: 2000–2006
After her narrow election victory in the first election, Halonen's approval ratings rose and reached a peak of 88% in December 2003.
Halonen has opposed the use of landmines in Finnish military doctrine.
Halonen has defended cluster bombs and did not sign a treaty which would have banned Finland from using these kinds of weapons.
Second term in office: 2006–2012
In 2008, Halonen nominated SDP-affiliated Ritva Viljanen for a second term in the Interior Ministry. The Council of State had nominated Ilkka Laitinen, who was unambiguously seen as the most competent candidate. During the past 50 years, only once the President has not obeyed the Council of State consensus and Halonen was accused of cronyism.
Personal life
President Halonen says her interests include art history, the theatre and swimming. Halonen had two cats as of 2005. She says she speaks Finnish, Swedish, and English, and is studying Estonian.
On 26 August 2000, President Halonen married her longtime partner, Dr. Pentti Arajärvi, in a civil ceremony at her official residence, Mäntyniemi, after a relationship of more than fifteen years. Halonen's adult daughter Anna, and Arajärvi's adult son Esko, acted as witnesses.[citation needed] Both children are from previous relationships.
She promotes Finland in her personal accoutrements, such as wearing a Moomin watch.
In the 1960s, she left the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to which the majority of Finns belong, to protest against its policy of taxing church members and its stance against female priests. Today, the church accepts women as priests and Halonen has stated that she has no personal reason not to return to the church but refrains from doing so in order not to give a signal that might be misinterpreted. In the 1990s, Halonen acted as the chairman of Suomen setlementtiliitto, a Christian social work organization.
In 1980–1981 Halonen served as the chairman of Seta, the main LGBT rights organization in Finland. When she became Minister for Justice in 1990, there were high hopes among Seta members that she would stand up for gay rights. In 2003, a widely publicised incident occurred when member of parliament Tony Halme referred to Tarja Halonen as a lesbian. In a radio interview, Halme referred to his background of growing up "in the streets" and said: "We have a lesbian as president and me as parliamentarian. Everything seems possible." Although Halme intended to refer to social mobility with his comment, it was interpreted as an insult by much of the media. Halonen herself made no comment. Halme later apologized saying he had been misunderstood.
According to her authorized biography published in 2005, Halonen is critical of some unnamed members of the Finnish civil service for being gay or lesbian and not coming out and campaigning for sexual equality. She accused these closeted homosexuals of reaping the benefits of other people's work for sexual equality without contributing themselves.
以上选自：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarja_Halonen
First Female President Elected
In 1906, Finland became the first European country to grant women the right to vote. Some 94 years later, it elected its first female president. But Halonen's historic moment was not reached without a struggle.
At the start of the 2000 elections, Halonen placed only fourth in the polls. Her arch rival, conservative former Prime Minister Esko Aho, made much of her unconventionality and leftwing positions, especially to his rural constituents. Still, by the January 16 election, Halonen had 39.9 percent of the vote, compared to Aho's 34.6 percent. That was not sufficient to win, however, as over 50 percent of the vote was required for victory. Thus, there was a tense runoff election between the two on February 6. This time, Halonen captured 51.6 percent of the vote, as opposed to her opponent's 48.4, and she became Finland's first female head of state. She assumed office as her country's 11th president on March 1, 2000.
While Halonen's landmark win was hardly a mandate, it was mainly attributed to her ability to attract the conservative women's vote and her straightforward demeanor. The Cincinnati Post quoted Finnish former Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, head of the Social Democrats, as saying, "Halonen is a person who with her own individuality, her openness, and her genuine character appealed across party lines." Whatever the reasons behind her victory, she was soon to become immensely popular across the board.
Unconventional and Wildly Popular
Shortly before Halonen took office, Finland adopted a new constitution that shifted more power to parliament, while limiting the president's authority as to domestic affairs. Although the president's role was still very operative in the foreign arena, Halonen soon made clear that she intended to be a figurehead in neither venue. Nor did she deny that the needs of her people might turn out to be at odds with the power she retained at home. "While parliament has reduced [the president's] direct power, the expectations and demands by the people for the president to have a role in domestic policy have increased," she told Brown–Humes. In any event, the president's wings had merely been trimmed, not clipped, and Halonen maintained control of such vital domestic institutions as the military.
Just after Halonen's election, Arajarvi was asked about the couple's marriage plans. He admitted that the subject had been discussed, but told Rupert Cornwell of London's Independent, "I will not propose in public, nor will I say in public whether I will do so." Nonetheless, whether to appease convention abroad or for completely unrelated reasons, the pair was very privately wed in August of 2000.
Halonen's wedding proved to be one of the few concessions to her new job that she was willing to make. On the whole, she conducted herself as she always had. Her stance on campaign issues such as the Nordic welfare society, human rights, and the environment remained unchanged. Indeed, she had been largely consistent about her causes for most of her career. Nor did her personal style alter. Salty language, impatience with ostentation, and a singular fashion sense were still hallmarks. She maintained a keen interest in the arts, swimming, and her pet cats and turtle. All of this contributed to a perception of great accessibility and directness that endeared Halonen to the public. The Swedish press nicknamed her "Moominmamma" after a maternal cartoon character created by the late Finnish artist and writer, Tove Jansson, and Finns took the moniker to heart. Halonen's approval ratings often ranged between 94 and 97 percent, sometimes slipping to a "mere" 85 percent. In 2004, she became the only living person to ever be included on a popular television special nominating the top ten greatest Finns. In short, Halonen was one of the most popular presidents Finland has ever had.
Beyond her huge popular appeal, Halonen earned the respect of colleagues and peers both at home and abroad. By 2004, she had accumulated no fewer than nine honorary degrees from universities ranging from the Chinese Academy of Forestry in Beijing (2002) to Ewha Women's University in the Republic of Korea (2002) to the University of Bluefields in Nicaragua (2004). She had also garnered such accolades as the Ceres Medal from the United Nations organization for agriculture and food, FAO, (2002) and the 2004 Grameen Foundation USA–Deutsche Bank Humanitarian Award for her "global vision and humanitarian perspective." Kerevan rightly described Halonen as a woman not to be underestimated: "Don't be fooled—the president of Finland is no conformist figurehead. In a nation of blondes, she is a fiery redhead." Halonen was also sensitive to her presidency being an inspiration to Finnish women. "It's not just women, but small girls," she told Brown–Hume. "I have had hundreds of letters from them already. And I hope I can encourage them."
With a typical irreverence and sense of fun, Halonen summed herself up aptly when appearing onstage with James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," in Helsinki in 2003. Declining to sing with him, CBS News quoted the president as saying, "Thank you for coming here Mr. James Brown, but I am not a showgirl." Perhaps not, but she did favor him with a dance.
以上选自：http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3446400089.html