Headmistress Miina Penttilä (1874–1963)

Maria Wilhelmiina Penttilä was born in Nurmo on February 16, 1874. An illegitimate child of a maidservant, her childhood was not easy, but she was clever and worked hard in school. After finishing secondary school, she was accepted into the teacher training seminary, where she could study with the financial aid of her mother’s well-off relative.

Penttilä graduated in 1896 and started working at the Hirvikoski elementary school. As the school grew, she was made the principal teacher. She was generally regarded to be a well-liked and skilled teacher. Her mother later moved to Loimaa so that Miina could take care of her. Both remained unmarried.

In 1907, she became active in local politics. During the winter of 1917–1918, she assisted with the travel arrangements for Finnish soldiers returning from Germany, known as the Jääkärikoulutus (Jaeger Training), a significant event during the Finnish struggle for independence. In general, her political positions were moderately right-wing and conservative, but with an overall enlightened approach. She opposed the socialist revolutionary movements active in the early 20th-century Finland.

In the first municipal elections of Loimaa in 1919, Penttilä was elected to the municipal council. She retired in the spring of 1941, upon reaching the age of 67. She would not have wanted to, but had reached the maximum age allowed for teachers at public schools.

From 1951 onwards, Penttilä lived in Loimaa, where she passed away on May 31, 1963. She spent her last years in a nursing home.

Caption: Loimaa Electoral Committee, 1907. Miina Penttilä was the only woman elected to the committee. In 1915, she was elected to the municipal board, but her election was later deemed illegal, since the law back then specifically spoke of “councilmen.” That Penttilä was elected nonetheless went to the courts, where it was decreed that, being a woman, she could not be a councilman. The practice was later overturned, and Finland became of the first countries in the world where men and women attained equality in suffrage and eligibility to public office (New Zealand being arguably the first).