Lehtimiehet Oy, everyday politics and gendered media in Finland from the 1950s to the 1980s
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Project description
Debates surrounding entertainment and polarisation are not a new phenomenon. This project focuses on Finnish popular media and the actors who worked for and influenced this media output in 1950s-1980s Finland. Specifically, we focus on the ways in which the Tampere-based publishing company Lehtimiehet Oy ('Magazine Men') and the magazines it published were a part of social change in the post-war period and especially how they rewrote hegemonic gender roles. We focus on gendered representations on the pages of the magazines as well as gendered agency in the publishing house's production practices. Our aim is to illuminate new perspectives in the field of Finnish gender history and everyday history, using the magazines published by Lehtimiehet Oy and the publishing company's business and journalistic practices as an example.
The project is led by Dr Hannah Kaarina Yoken. She will work on the project from September 2025 until the end of 2026. FT Juho Saksholm is working on the project in 2024-2025. The project funds PhD researcher FM Aino Ollila from 2024-2026.
Conference Presentations
- "'Hermit Singles' in Finnish Media 1960s–1970s: Singleness, Nature, and Urbanization", Aino Ollila, International Conference on Cultural History ISCH 2025, June 2025, Rovaniemi
- "Everyday politics and gendered media in 1950s–1980s Finland. Lehtimiehet Oy as a case study.", Aino Ollila & Hannah Kaarina Yoken, The Fifth Baltic Connections: A Conference in Social Science History 2024, June 2024, Jyväskylä
- "Perheettömien merkitys Lehtimiehet oy:n aikakauslehdissä 1959-1975", Aino Ollila, Median ja viestinnän tutkimuksen päivät, April 2024, Tampere
