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Księga poświęcona Profesorowi Hieronimowi Kubiakowi w 75. rocznicę urodzin. Tom ofiarowany przez przyjaciół i uczniów

Tradition and modernity in models of women’s roles in Poland

The article discusses the changes in models of women’s role including the period of actual socialism and new socio-systematic reality after 1989. The main aim is to prove that discrimination of women in the public sphere is generated by cultural factors, among which the traditional model appears to be the most powerful. The author presents the evolution of said model as a continuum constructed specifically for this very purpose. The continuum takes the form of a trichotomy: traditional model – modernized model – contemporary model. By extracting features most typical for each of the models mentioned she attempts to show that they coexist and form diverse configurations and their common feature is a slow departure from tradition limiting women’s activity to private sphere and approach in the direction of modernity and full participation in public sphere. Professional activisation, civil activity and participation in politics become the examples of modernity

The meanders of the women movement in the Polish People’s Republic

Women’s activity in the analyzed period in Poland had many weak points, however, in needs to be stated that they stemmed more form the political reality typical for the authoritarian system in which the illusion of democratic freedoms was created than from the lack of the mobilizing potential of women. In the years 1945–1989 there were no objective frameworks for women to create and effectively realize other social roles than the one dictated by biology, namely the family role. Even if an easier access to the employment spheres, which – at least at the ideological level – was in fact combined with the broadly-understood equality of rights, was given to the women, it was usually done instrumentally, more due to the economic needs than the needs of a woman-citizen. Other manifestations of women participation in the public life were treated similarly by, among others, sidelining women spontaneous engagement in the early opposition activity and the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” movement. The organizational opportunities that were offered by the authorities in the form of the Women League and the Country Housewives’ Association created a substitute of citizen activity for their members, however, in reality they were becoming merely – as J. Raciborski would put that – an example of creating an “institutionalized mobilization” of numerous women by means of “controlled participation.” Although the development of women movement in that time in Poland was slow and meandric, not keeping up with its western trend, and even partially missing its ideology, the facts presented in the article that concern more or less unconventional behaviours of Polish women should constitute an indispensible reference point for undertaking a wider research on the history of the women movement in Poland