THE ARTICLE PRESENTS the establishment and functioning of the office of commissioner for Equal Status of Men and Women (2001–2005). The author shows selectively the data that allow to claim that despite of the fact that there is legal equality of rights, women in Poland are discriminated in the labour market, in management and in politics. Activities of the commissioner (in the rank of secretary and later undersecretary of state) and 16 authorized women in the field should have visualized the society the existing discrimination of women in Poland and they should have fought with the stereotypes of thinking and acting of offices, employers, politics and media. The liquidation of the commissioner’s office in 2005 was the violation of the United Europe directive, that requires from the EU countries to have such an office in their structure
