As a schoolgirl I resolved not to waste my life on activism. This decision was influenced by Teiniliitto (a grammar school student organisation) and my mother. In the 1970s I witnessed class struggle within the grammar school. One of the crowning achievements of school democracy was a smoking room for the students. My mother's involvement in political organisations showed me how much working for shared dreams eats into your family time.

When I graduated in the early 1990s, I expected to slip smoothly into some newsroom or other, as I had been working as a journalist before university as well as all through my studies. But the nation was wallowing in a depression and there were no permanent positions open. Still, there was work to be had. I became an independent journalist. This type of work suits my personality. The home as workplace is both liberating and isolating. The best thing at my workplace has been the coffee break when the children come home from school with their friends. Their life would have been much more remote had I been in some open-plan office; still, meeting my colleagues at the offices of Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, or in cafes has always been important.

It was a surprise to discover that I had an idealist buried deep within myself when I realised that not everybody gets paid the same wages for the same work. I became concerned when I realised that due to their fees being so low many freelancers have underinsured themselves. There's not only a pensions crisis awaiting the younger generations but also a pensionless crisis. When I understood the situation I revoked my youthful resolution.

Consequently, in recent years I have been active in the Union of Journalists as well as on the boards of the Union of Finnish Radio and TV Journalists and Kopiosto. I have also served two terms on the Committee for Public Information in Finland. Questions of intellectual property rights are my forte. I have munched on meeting sandwiches in various committees and commissions. There are times when I wonder what a humanities graduate is doing debating contracts among an army of lawyers. But why not: humanities graduates and scholars create vast amounts of content and use it in their work.