Collective emotional biography of selected Polish female parliamentarians of the interwar period
Collective emotional biography of selected Polish female parliamentarians of the interwar period

Summary/Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to attempt to show the collective biography of Polish women parliamentarians of the interwar period through an insight into their emotions and feelings, to show the “emotional communities” presented by Barbara Rosenwein. In this text I will focus on the main problems of the political activity of Polish women parliamentarians in the interwar period. Source materials produced by women, mainly ego-documents and public documents created by them, will be used to develop this topic. The study will analyze the individual experiences of women parliamentarians. Their emotions, opinions and reflections on parliamentary work will be taken into account. The paper will also discuss selected biographical aspects of the women parliamentarians, such as their age, education and political views, which undoubtedly had an impact on their opinions and emotions. Polish women parliamentarians of that time had to struggle with many problems. Reluctance to place women on candidate lists was a common occurrence. Moreover, women had to meet numerous social expectations. First of all, they were required to be mothers and wives who were responsible for family life, that is, the private sphere. Furthermore, women were seen more as social activists than as politicians. At the same time, men considered women’s issues less important, which was evident in parliamentary discussions. The main research questions were: How did women perceive their own political activity? political activity? What problems did politically active women face?

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