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Women in Poland, 1945–1989

Katarzyna Stanczak-Wislicz, Piotr Perkowski, Malgorzata Fidelis, Barbara Klich-Kluczewska

Women in Poland, 1945–1989

Modernity, Equality, Communism

Women in Poland 1945–1989: Modernity, Equality, Communism offers a compelling and deeply researched exploration of women’s lives under state socialism in Poland. The book reveals how communist promises of emancipation intersected with everyday reality – shaping work, family life, political participation, and personal identity. It examines women’s political engagement, experiences of work in both urban factories and rural fields, the management of household and family life, childhood and education, as well as biopolitics and the evolving culture of beauty. Juxtaposing the Polish experience with developments across Europe in the second half of the twentieth century, this insightful study uncovers the ambitions, contradictions, and lived realities of communist projects directed at women.
Forthcoming publication. Pre-orders will open a few weeks before publication date.
Authors

Katarzyna Stanczak-Wislicz

Katarzyna Stanczak-Wislicz, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences – cultural historian interested in women’s history in post-1945 Poland and history of popular culture; the author of e.g. Real-life Stories. Confession Narratives in Polish Popular Women’s Magazines in XX century (2010), co-editor of the Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights. East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century, (CEU Press, 2024).

Piotr Perkowski

Piotr Perkowski, University of Gda.sk – social historian, his research fields include social and economic history of Poland in the second half of the 20th century; the author of a book on post-war Gda.sk (Gda.sk – miasto od nowa). His forthcoming monograph, Communism, Shipyards and the Crisis of Modernity: The Political Economy of Late Socialism in Poland, navigates the era from Gierek to Jaruzelski, exploring the interplay between a command economy, societal pressures and post-Bretton-Woods global dynamics.

Malgorzata Fidelis

Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois Chicago – social and cultural historian, focused particularly on everyday life and the relationship between individuals and state power in post-1945 Eastern Europe; the author of Imagining the World from Behind the Iron Curtain: Youth and the Global Sixties in Poland (2022) and Women, Communism, and Industrialization in Postwar Poland (2010). She is currently working on a book about the post-1989 transition in Poland with an emphasis on grassroots protests in defense of reproductive rights.

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Jagiellonian University, Kraków – cultural historian, her fields of research include history of family and childhood, history of sexuality and gender history; the author of e.g.: Family, Taboo and Communism in Poland, 1956¬–1989 (2021) and co-editor of Fearing for the Nation. Biopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century
Title
Women in Poland, 1945–1989
Subtitle
Modernity, Equality, Communism
Authors
Price
€ 141,00 excl. VAT
ISBN
9789048576708
Format
Hardback
Number of pages
320
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Categories
Eastern Central Europe
Gender and Queer Studies
Modern History
Sociology and Social History
Discipline
History, Art History, and Archaeology
Imprint
Table of Contents
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Introduction to the English-Language Edition
Chapter 1. The Road to Power? Women in Politics (Piotr Perkowski)
Chapter 2. Equal Rights or Conservative Modernity? Women and Work (Ma.gorzata Fidelis)
Chapter 3. The Modern Housewife: Woman in the Household (Piotr Perkowski and Katarzyna Sta.czak-Wi.licz)
Chapter 4. “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl”: Upbringing, Coming-of-Age, and Education (Katarzyna Sta.czak-Wi.licz)
Chapter 5. Women and the Family (Barbara Klich-Kluczewska)
Chapter 6. Objects of Biopolitics? Health, Reproduction, and Violence (Barbara Klich-Kluczewska and Piotr Perkowski)
Chapter 7. Beautiful and Resourceful: Beauty Culture and the Body (Ma.gorzata Fidelis and Katarzyna Sta.czak-Wi.licz)
Concluding Remarks
Bibliography
Index

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