Drogi kobiet do stacji Niepodległa
Women’s ways to the Independence station

Summary/Abstract: Tradition, culture, continuity and change controlled Polish national life during the partitions. Emancipating women, who on the eve of the great war were fighting not only for the independence, but also for their equality with men, were driven by that trend too. They were reviving the memory of women’s participation in uprisings and revolutions, they were entering the masculine world of paramilitary organisations. While breaking mental barriers, they acquired soldier’s skills so useful in the years of the global conflict. They contributed to the revival of the sovereign state. The Voluntary Legion of Women, first women’s paramilitary organisation in Poland, was a real European phenomenon of that time. Women entered the path of independence thanks to their heroism, courage and readiness for an armed struggle supported by the culture of Romanticism. They summed up experiences of six generations that had been fighting for free Poland and after independence achieved equality with men. They became co-responsible for the state and once again used their soldier’s skills during the Second World War.

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