The works of the country's most well-known early modernist architect, Eliel Saarinen, in particular, have had a huge global impact. Alvar Aalto, a modernist architect who is recognized as one of the great architects in the history of contemporary architecture, is even more well-known than Saarinen. Modernism was very popular in Finland during the 1920s and 1930s. It was then that Alvar Aalto designed many buildings, including schools, hospitals, and churches. He also designed furniture and glass objects for these projects. His work is known all over the world because of its innovative style. Aalto was one of the first Finnish architects to practice in his own name. Before him, only students or assistants worked under names. This may explain why so few women architects worked in Finland at this time. But now they are starting to appear on the scene, especially in Helsinki where many young female architects have their offices. There are several factors that may have prevented more female architects from working in Finland. First of all, there were hardly any architectural schools here until 1970 when a new university was founded in Helsinki with courses on design, construction, and management. Until then, students had to go to Sweden or Germany to study architecture. Also, most architects worked for other companies or individuals and received no salary themselves. So it was difficult for them to save enough money to start their own office.