Poland: Transformation into a Patriarchal State By Katarzyna Szumlewicz

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The former political system of Poland, so-called socialism, had done a lot for women. They were granted equal access to employment and education and were partly relieved of family burdens thanks to the well- developed network of pre-school nurseries and day-care centres. Abortion had been lawful in Poland and family planning had been promoted much earlier than it was in France or Germany. These regulations and policies were accompanied by a progressive divorce law and effective policies aimed at combating domestic violence. All these achievements are hardly questionable, regardless of one's attitude to socialist ideas and reality.

 

Yet while giving women high social status and rights that they can hardly hope to enjoy today, socialism failed to recognize the views and demands of women themselves. There were no independent women's organizations, let alone feminist groups. This failure allowed conservative attitudes to remain, constantly reinforced by the Catholic Church, which, despite its virtual absence from the media and educational system, still exerted great ideological influence.

 

In 1989, after the breakdown of socialism in Poland, western commentators expected the newly introduced democracy to bring rapid improvement in the situation of women. After all, feminist organizations were now fully legal and wide recognition of human rights should contribute to the emancipation of the oppressed groups. Yet the facts proved otherwise.

 

Instead of being granted more rights by the democratic state, women were soon deprived of those rights and liberties they had enjoyed so far. First, abortion was suppressed. But that was not all. Despite the promotion of full families with many children, many nurseries were closed down and the remaining few introduced high fees. As a result, women with large families had to leave their jobs and take care of their numerous offspring at home. It is not surprising that despite the ban on abortion, expensive contraceptives, and high availability of Viagra, the rate of natural growth in Poland has collapsed.

 

As the ultimate illustration of women’s position, the Polish parliament did not even accept the motion to vote on a law granting equal status to men and women. The arguments used by right-wing politicians invoked ‘natural differences in the vocation of men and women’. Conservative MPs ridiculed the proposal to avoid gender stereotypes in school textbooks. They argued that such efforts might result in boys experiencing a sexual identity crisis. Such are the appalling inequalities between men and women in Poland today. Can future developments take another direction, more favourable for women?

 

Despite the views of many Polish feminists of ‘Solidarity’ origin, the current situation of women does not contradict the logic of transformation – it follows the same path. As the revolution of 1989 was directed against a system that was considered left-wing, all elements of the left political agenda were rejected – including gender equality. Later the taxes of the rich were lowered, the labour code was amended to strengthen the position of employers and the social welfare system was gradually curtailed. Poland was being rebuilt as a class society characterized by vast inequalities in wealth and economic power.

 

This purpose was fulfilled in record time. Although the official goal of the neoliberal policy was to curtail unemployment, the number of jobless has been growing throughout the whole period of transformation. Women have suffered particularly as the unemployment rate soared to 21.2%. They also make up the majority of those on low incomes and those relying on the welfare system.

 

Apart from conservative liberal ideology, the second most important factor shaping Polish transformation has been the extremely conservative Polish Catholic Church. The Church, powerful already in the socialist period, has grown to enormous proportions since 1989. Today, virtually no important government decision is taken without its consent. At the Church's demand, religious instruction was introduced into school curricula and it soon became compulsory. Officially, students of other faiths or non-believers, may attend ethics classes, but lack of funding prevents most schools from employing teachers of ethics. The syllabi of other subjects, including history and biology, have also been prepared in consultation with bishops. Sex education was replaced in school curricula by unambiguously Catholic ‘education for family life’. Dangerous misinformation, such as the idea that condoms let through the HIV virus, is rife.

 

The Polish Catholic Church is particularly conservative. It has not given birth to any movement comparable to Latin American ‘Liberation Theology’ or North American ‘Catholics for a Free Choice’. The image of women promoted by the Polish Catholic Church harks back to that of the Middle Ages.

 

Liberal ideology only seemingly opposes this backward view. While wealthy women are able to free themselves from domestic chores, they form a tiny minority, and moreover their freedom is secured by the exploitation of other women – often underpaid and underinsured Ukrainian home helps and babysitters. Far from real emancipation, it amounts at most to limited economic advancement within a steadfastly patriarchal order.

 

Polish democracy is a world without women. And it is little recompense to them to know that others, too, such as the male unemployed and pensioners, have been deprived of influence. A powerful coalition of financial and religious elites has been responsible for this situation. Their influence on government policy has been evident in the failure to repeal the ban on abortion, the cutting of social welfare benefits, and the commitment to introduce a reference to God into the preamble of the Constitution of the European Union. Without undermining the power of this coalition, the achievement of women’s rights, freedom, and dignity seem unattainable.

 

Katarzyna Szumlewicz is a member of the Polish Humanist Association