Maria Laine 1868-1945

Maria Laine was a Finnish politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she was elected to Parliament in 1907 as one of the first group of female MPs. She remained an MP until the following year.
Paaso-Laine contested the 1907 elections on the Social Democratic Party’s list in Tavastia South and was one of 19 women elected to parliament. However, she lost her seat in the 1908 elections. During her time in parliament she sat on the Committee on Legal Affairs, and attracted attention and criticism for dressing in an upper-class style.

During the Finnish Civil War she was a member of the Red Food Command. Following the war she was brie y imprisoned at Hämeenlinna prison camp. She later ran a paper shop in Helsinki, where she died in 1945.