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The topic of the article is friendship, an old philosophical problem that has been privatized in modern times. Along with the privatization, the culture of friendship also collapsed. I look into the history of friendship, understanding of this concept, and, most importantly, the question of friendship between women.
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The paper attempts to identify a specific type of social bonds, based on mutual care, concern and support, that emerged between women from subordinate groups involved in communist activity in the Second Polish Republic, namely: Jewish domestic workers (servants). The only traces of such ties can be recognized in documents (CVs, opinions, a handful memoirs) made for the party apparatus. The research perspective developed by feminist historiography and the school of microhistory helps to show how awkward phrasing, while “loosening” the standardized stiff form of such documents, reveals the otherwise unexpressed forms of women’s social contacts.
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This paper attempts to describe the work of the Family Law and Policy Group based within the Research Committee for the Sociology of Law and the contribution of Małgorzata Fuszara to its formulation and dissemination. We are a long way from black letter legal analysis and a long way from more descriptive empirical socio-legal studies: we aim to develop the Sociology of Law in family matters.
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The subject of considerations is the family in the context of equality and inequality of roles played by both genders. The processes of social change apply to a family unit as well. The question is whether these are revolutionary changes to gender equality in the family. The analysis of the issue will be based on the results of research conducted in different years. The agreement, sometimes quite striking, between men and women does not mean an aversion to the traditional family model. This internal gender equality or inequality can be interpreted, understood, explained and perceived in various ways.
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Socialization into gender roles in the everyday lives of children – particularly younger children – is to a large extent the result of the parental practices adopted in their families, which include not just conscious decisions regarding the upbringing or education of children, but also forming of their everyday life through, often automatic and made without reflection, choices and actions. By shaping the material environment of childhood (children’s spaces, their toys, clothes), by encouraging or discouraging children’s activities, by including or excluding them from various activities or information, parents influence the formation of their offspring’s identities, including their gender identity. In addition, children more or less co-create the conditions in which “self” is formed, and the degree of children’s participation and their influence on this process is also – at least in part – the result of certain everyday, often automatic and reflexive decisions. So what does socialization into gender roles look like in contemporary Polish families? Are there differences in the socialization practices of mothers and fathers? Do practices involving girls and boys significantly differ? And finally, what is the influence of children themselves on shaping these practices? The article presents the results of qualitative research on gender roles socialization in preschool and primary school children, occuring in everyday family life and in children’s extracurricular activities.
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This paper is based on the results of the Families of Choice in Poland research project carried out in 2013-2016 at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences under the direction of PhD hab. Joanna Mizielińska. It addresses the issue of how families of choice cope with the lack of recognition in Polish law. In the article, the author tries to answer the question concerning how Polish LGBT families manage with this lack of legal recognition in their everyday lives. The author puts families and their needs at the center of her considerations. Mizielińska shows how Polish law does not meet the specificity of these needs, in particular with regard to the lack of security in the relationship between a child and their social parent. In this context, the author asks what type of legal solutions would be most desirable for such families and postulates the necessity of their implementation.
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From the perspective of principles of a dynastic family, a model dominant until the 19th century, illegitimate births were evidence of the interruption of the “normal” social process, and a weakening of social control. The old laws and nineteenth-century civil codes had dug a chasm between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” children, or bastards (this noun became a slur). In the 19th century in Europe, the proportion of “illegitimate” children increased rapidly, while attitudes towards them were slower to change.
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The surge of popular and scholarly interest in non-patriarchal social patterns has inspired formation of various new terms for them. Why then insist on the sometimes problematic designation, “matriarchy”? Reclaiming this term means to reclaim knowledge of societies that have been socially, economically, politically and culturally created by women. In the course of these cultures’ long histories, women and men have participated equally to sustain them and pass them on to future generations.
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In this paper I attempt to analyze the formation of women’s political identity in Poland after 1989 – what is possible and indeed necessary in order to act towards changing the image of a politically active woman, a woman who votes and acts in the public sphere. At the same time, I stress the importance of women activists as well as researchers and politicians in overcoming institutional, political, social, economic and cultural barriers. I show that efforts to establish feminist research methods and thus enhance women’s empowerment are an integral part of the strategy to fight for women’s rights and achieve equal treatment of women and men. I show that comprehensive, interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches, applied both in practice and in theory, must become the basis of the struggle for women’s rights. At the same time, action is needed to make society aware that women have a political identity, that they are fighting for their rights, for gender equality and equal treatment, for reproductive rights, for equal pay, and for new approaches to electoral rights that would ensure that more women are placed on the electoral lists. Forming a political identity is a long, often convoluted process that is never straightforward. Professor Małgorzata Fuszara knows best how to act both in academia and politics, as well as how to be an activist. Her contributions are invaluable, as she was able to put her vision of intersectionality into practice.
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Stereotypes which paint women as being incapable of making a considered moral decision on matters relating to reproductive rights lie at the root of the failure (until 2020) to respect the so-called “abortion compromise” in Poland. As the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights indicate, this compromise has been violated in relation to each of the circumstances that permitted termination of pregnancy. In these rulings, the ECHR stressed that the applicants were subjected to degrading and inhumane treatment by doctors and the judiciary. Despite this, votes of women ensured that the parliamentary elections were won by the Law and Justice party, and thanks to the surplus of women’s votes, the incumbent president was re-elected to office. This dissonance can be hypothetically explained by referring to the results of a nationwide survey conducted in 2020 (before the infamous ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal of 22nd October 2020). According to the results, women attach more importance than men to rights concerning access to social services and benefits; what’s more, this sphere seems to have greater significance for women than the breach of the abortion compromise mentioned above.
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In this paper we reflect on the process of egalitarianization of family life, looking for key moments or events in a person’s life that accelerated or reinforced the “journey to equality”. The family is an area of social life where the struggle for equality is seen as crucial due to the unfair division of labor and privileges of power. Based on the qualitative research material, we put forward a concept of gender equality triggers – pointing to specific turning points in the thinking about and practining equality. Our reflection on the equality triggers serves as a continuation of the research on the processes of transformation of the gender contract: from a gender contract based on the traditional gender order to a new, equal gender contract. “Secret doors to the transformation” of the gender contract are linked with women’s entry into employment, the unequal distribution of unpaid work, relationship crises, the emergence of feminist consciousness through learning about other women’s experiences, and the refusal to reproduce inequality.
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The article addresses the issue of the priesthood of women in Christian churches, including the Catholic churches. The widespread rejection of women from priestly functions and the special status associated with them is justified by the institutions both theologically and historically. There is, however, the Mariavite Catholic Church established in Poland, which has ordained women priests and bishops since 1929 and which has constructed its own alternative theology and liturgy. The description of the establishment and functioning of the church was based on a critical analysis of available studies and documents, with particular emphasis on the issue of priestesses who used to serve in it, while the summary of the current situation was formulated on the basis of data obtained during field research conducted by the author in 2020. Insights into the priesthood of women contained in the article are additionally grounded in a broader reflection on feminine forms of nouns (nomina feminativa) in Polish and their designations, as well as in data concerning general public opinion on the priesthood of women.
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The text analyses the ways in which female friendship and feminist sisterhood are presented in the liberal press (Wysokie Obcasy, Polityka), on the Internet and in TV series. It is an attempt to answer the following questions: do any images of female friendship emerge from this analysis? And if so, are they uniform or diverse? What disputes and concerns are raised by the idea of feminist sisterhood in today’s Poland? Are there links between female friendship and the somewhat broader notion of sisterhood postulated by feminism? Portrayals of friendship and sisterhood in TV series, in the press, and on the Internet feature extremely polarized representations – either rejecting the possibility of female solidarity and true friendship, or showing their enormous role in women’s lives. I am more inclined to believe in the latter notion: female friendship, small communities built on similar values, attitudes, mutual loyalty, readiness to help or support. I am much less convinced, however, by the idea of female sisterhood, community building and loyalty to other women who often have very little in common with each other.
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The portraits of two women present the transformation of the ways of life of a grandmother, who lives in a small village, and her granddaughter, who lives in the city. The statements by both women allow us to grasp their aspirations and the extent of influence they both had on shaping their lives.
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The text is an attempt to reconstruct some of the themes in Professor Małgorzata Fuszara’s academic research and public activity in the context of the changes which have taken place in the feminist movement in Poland in recent decades. The paper analyzes the transformation of the feminist movement after 1989 – from providing service and assistance, to formulating essential issues in the public debate – from a perspective of the work of key actors in social life. At the same time, it points to the interpenetration of theoretical knowledge and attitudes in contemporary feminist movements, and their transformation towards intersectional activism.
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Polish abortion law is already one of the most restrictive pieces of legislation in Europe. In recent five years, subsequent attempts to curb reproductive rights have sparked off women’s protests on a scale unprecedented in the history of Poland. The largest ones took place in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that terminating a pregnancy due to fetal abnormalities violates the constitution. In practice, the decision imposed a de facto ban on abortion. Hundreds of people took to the streets in more than 500 hundred municipalities across Poland. We have been accompanying these waves of women’s mobilizations protests since 2016, looking for the most appropriate research strategies to describe them. One of them is the creation of a feminist archive, described in the chapter. The feminist theories of citizenship serve as our theoretical framework. This approach combines the concepts of citizenship as a status (associated with rights and duties) and of citizenship as everyday practice, which is essential to becoming a citizen. It allows people to regain a sense of agency, efficiency, and dignity.
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The article identifies key features of the #MeToo movement, a relatively new global wave of women’s activism against male sexual violence. The author argues that some of the characteristics, by virtue of their novelty, have a broader political potential to transform the unequal gender order, going beyond the mere problem of sexual crimes committed by men against women.
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This paper analyzes the concept of homophobia from the perspective of social queer theory. The introduction to the analysis of the notion in question is a consideration of biphobia and transphobia. Subsequently, the author characterizes homophobia as a cultural and social phenomenon, using categories such as the center and the margins, visibility and phallogocentrism. Kochanowski identifies the sources of homophobia in the mechanisms of power which impose mandatory heterosexuality, and draws attention to its consequence: gender and sexual segregation. On the basis of the presented characteristics, the author formulates the definition of homophobia as a set of meanings and social practices connected with those meanings, related to defending and maintaining the system of obligatory heterosexuality. The specific contexts of homophobia occurrence are also mentioned – the political context (political homophobia) and the state context (institutional homophobia).
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