Sessions & Registration

From fire-keepers to future-builders, women’s role in sauna shows how heritage is carried forward - and why the future of sauna depends on it. Across generations, sauna has been a place of care, healing, and continuity—with women at its center. From midwives guiding childbirth in the warm, sterile heat to families preparing loved ones for burial, and healers practicing folk medicine and ritual, women have long tended the fires, prepared the löyly, and safeguarded sauna knowledge across lifetimes. As Juho Pelkonen of Kamu Sauna has noted, women have historically been the keepers of sauna space and practice—and continue to be essential leaders in its future. Today, women carry this lineage forward not only as cultural knowledge bearers, but also as entrepreneurs, designers, and stewards shaping the global sauna movement. Drawing on contemporary research in heritage futures-thinking and third-space theory, this session explores how women-led sauna projects in Finland, North America, and beyond function as acts of cultural stewardship—protecting sauna from dilution into fleeting wellness trends and anchoring it instead as a resilient, intergenerational practice rooted in reciprocity, equity, and care. Looking ahead, the session considers how supporting women and families in bringing children back into the sauna ensures continuity, trust, and the long-term vitality of sauna culture for generations to come.