This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. No country for losers? Gender, (in)equality, and the discursive construction of subjects and values in Polish politics Barbara Gawęda Declaration I hereby declare that, except where otherwise indicated, this thesis has been composed by me and is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification. Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... i Abstract ...................................................................................................................... iii List of abbreviations and acronyms ......................................................................... v List of figures ............................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2: The discursive construction of subjects and values: the conceptual and theoretical framework for the Polish case ...................................................... 29 Chapter 3: The critical discourse analysis approach, method, and research design ......................................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 4: Gender inequality legacies of transformation and trajectories of democratization in Poland ....................................................................................... 94 Chapter 5: Constructing the family ..................................................................... 129 Chapter 6: Building the nation ............................................................................. 163 Chapter 7: The ‘war on gender’ in Poland .......................................................... 189 Chapter 8: Conclusions ......................................................................................... 217 Appendix I: List of parliamentary debates included in the analysis ................. 237 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 295 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors – I could not have wished for a better-cooperating or a more committed and meticulous team: my thanks go to Prof Luke March for allowing me to change completely my research topic one month into the program and for advising me; and to Prof Fiona Mackay for being a mentor and a true guide in feminist theory and practice. Thank you to the School of Social and Political Science of the University of Edinburgh for the Special Merit Award and the Graduate School Scholarship that helped me fund this PhD. I am also very grateful to the Gender Studies department and the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki for hosting me as a visiting doctoral student and providing me with excellent resources on Eastern Europe. This project could not have been completed without the help from support staff of the University of Helsinki and of the Student Counselling Services of the University of Edinburgh, especially from Lesley Gray. Parts of this thesis and related projects have been presented at several conferences, research seminars, and workshops over the past years. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read, comment, and discuss my drafts. My biggest thanks go to my family and friends. I am very grateful to Magda for a long, grounding friendship and for hosting me in Warsaw whenever I needed it. My sisters have been a source of support and welcome distraction. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my dad who raised three feminists and who was the one to suggest that I go into academia and taught me to question. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, Marco, whose bad jokes, unwavering confidence, and positive sensibility supported me through the anxiety and the meltdowns. I could not have done this without him. Pracę tę dedykuję też Marii i Stanisławowi Gawędom, którzy zawsze przecież chcieli żebym została doktorem_ką. i Abstract Mainstream scholarly literature has examined the post-1989 transformations in Eastern Europe without sufficient attention to gendered perspectives. Most feminist scholars and mainstream political scientists expected that the processes of democratization and Europeanization would be harbingers of positive change, and have not fully succeeded in explaining the current lack of gender equality in the region. This dissertation attempts to fill the gap by combining the insights from ‘Western’ theoretical contributions with empirical research of the Polish case. By drawing on multiple theoretical angles (post-colonialism, nationalism and gender, feminist institutionalism, feminist political economy, Europeanization), I aim to rethink the complex position of Poland in the processes of Europeanization and soft norm diffusion. The recent ‘war on gender’, which took the form of a virulent anti-equality and anti-minorities discursive campaign, has demonstrated that, despite the political and economic changes after 1989, gender inequality and social exclusion persist, and indeed may have intensified. My research explores the current discursive products and legacies (construction of subjects and values) of transformation and Europeanization as observed in mainstream political debates. This dissertation focuses on debates in the Polish parliament, the Sejm, because it is the main site of political discourse in Poland and thus influences also broader societal debates. My main argument is that gendered discourses in the Polish parliament reproduce patterns of domination and inequality, thereby creating discursive categories and subjects that are excluded and marginalized. Dominant discourses on masculinity, femininity, and sexuality prescribe a conservative set of social relations in the family and the nation. This implies that anyone who does not fulfil these discursive standards gets symbolically stigmatized and emerges from the political process as a discursive ‘loser’. Furthermore, the dissertation argues that the ways in which Europeanization and democratization were implemented in Poland, focusing primarily on neoliberal economic reforms, have left free rein to right-wing forces and the catholic church to define values and subjects. I specifically address the influential role of the catholic church in the Polish political context and argue that the anti-gender equality and anti- diversity mobilizations are cyphers for a broader backlash led by nationalist conservative actors against Europeanization and globalization processes. My contributions lie in the theoretical and conceptual bridging of various literatures (i.e. on transformation and gender) and the application of critical discourse analysis to the study of Polish parliamentary debates. Moreover, the thesis exposes invisible and ‘gender neutral’ norms about subjects and gender roles as constructed in Polish politics, with particular focus on welfare and family models and the construction of the nation. I highlight hegemonic masculinities and the marginalization or silencing of alternative discourses. The analysis provides insights into the mechanisms of gender power that construct some groups as the norm and others as problematic or deviant. iii List of abbreviations and acronyms AWS Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność (Solidarity Electoral Action) CDA critical discourse analysis CEE Central and Eastern Europe EP European Parliament EU European Union GUS Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Main Statistical Office) IVF in vitro fertilization LPR Liga Polskich Rodzin (League of Polish Families) OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PiS Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) PO Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform) PR Polska Razem (Poland Together) PRL Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (Polish People’s Republic) PZPR Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers’ Party) RP Rzeczpospolita Polska (Republic of Poland) SLD Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (Democratic Left Alliance) SP Solidarna Polska (Solidarity of Poland) TR Twój Ruch (Your Movement) v List of figures Figure 2.1 Aspects of the construction of subjects based on the theoretical insights used in this dissertation………………………………………………….59 Table 2.1 The different ‘losers’ as conceptualized by the approaches applied in this dissertation……………………………………………………………...60 Figure 3.2 Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis…..71 Table 3.2 Outline of the steps taken in the methodological process…………….….75 Table 3.3 Operationalizing critical discourse analysis…………………………….76 Figure