SERVING WOMEN AND THE STATE: THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN IN COMMUNIST POLAND DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Barbara A. Nowak, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Leila J. Rupp, Adviser Professor Susan Hartmann _________________________ Professor Birgitte Søland Adviser Department of History ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the complex ways in which a mass women’s organization in communist Eastern Europe functioned within and served a communist party-state, while simultaneously acting on behalf of its own constituents, negotiating and exhibiting dissatisfaction with policy, and defining its activism. My study focuses specifically on the Liga Kobiet (League of Women) in Poland from its inception in 1945 to the 1990s. The group’s composition, ideology, structure, and programs, as well as its changing role within the party-state, form the core of the study. Most scholars who have examined such women’s organizations have portrayed them as centralized and bureaucratic puppets of the party-state. My work, in contrast, shows that even in communist party-states, organizations and the women who participated in them were not necessarily powerless and had some voice, although limited, in determining their specific role and status. Simultaneously, the League served the needs of both the state and women, and at certain moments of its history its members resisted party policy and sought to define the organization according to their own ideas. The League combined these two often conflicting (yet not mutually exclusive) goals of promoting party policy and advocating women’s rights and needs in different ways as the political climate shifted over the years. My dissertation is the first in-depth case study of the mass women’s organization in Poland during the communist period and one of the first of any such group in Eastern Europe. This study illustrates the complex ways in which official communist-era organizations could serve multiple purposes for different constituencies, helping us to think about the supposedly “totalitarian” party-states in a more nuanced way. ii Dedicated to Ed, Matthew, and Thomas iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While conducting independent research on the postcommunist women’s movement in Poland between 1995 and 1996 prior to starting graduate school, I began to wonder what women’s activism looked like during the communist era and how it differed from the vibrant and growing movement in the 1990s. These questions eventually resulted in my decision to explore the League of Women’s history for my doctoral project. This dissertation could not have been completed without the supportive and encouraging environment of the Ohio State University’s department of history. Numerous faculty members and fellow graduate students made the road as painless as possible. My adviser Leila Rupp, now at the University of California at Santa Barbara, continuously provided me with constructive criticism, read multiple drafts, and pushed me in new and challenging directions. Even in the midst of being swamped with her own work, her door was always open. In my first year of graduate studies, I enrolled in a research seminar taught by Susan Hartmann, and since that initial course, she has provided me with ongoing reassurance and useful feedback. Birgitte Søland asked difficult yet immensely important questions that have led me to explore my research in new ways. Katherine David-Fox, now at the University of Maryland, encouraged me to formulate more nuanced and complex arguments. Her feedback pushed me in directions that I thought I did not want to go but eventually was glad that I did. Finally, Ruth Peterson from the sociology department provided insightful comments as outside reader during my doctoral defense. These scholars’ strong work ethic and respectability has been a model that I seek to follow in my own career. I would also like to thank a few OSU graduate students for reading and commenting on portions of my dissertation and/or for helping me get through this process, especially Heather Miller, Charlotte Weber, Renée Lansley, and the students in a women’s history seminar offered by Leila and an Eastern European history seminar offered by Katherine. Malgorzata Fidelis, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University, deserves significant thanks for her continuous assistance and interest in my work. As one of the few scholars working specifically on iv Polish women’s history during the communist period, she provided me with crucial feedback for each of my chapters, pointing me to new sources and questions. She and Katherine Lebow shared various documents with me. I would also like to thank the commentators of various papers that I presented at national conferences, including Padraic Kenney, Laurie Koloski, Jane Curry, Barbara Alpern Engel, Joanna Regulska, and Robert Blobaum—as well as the participants at the 2003 Junior Scholars’ Training Seminar, co-sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Eastern European Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. My academic sponsor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków—sociologist Krystyna Slany—arranged the logistics of my affiliation with the university. Over frequent coffee and meals, we discussed women’s issues as well as the status of academia in Poland. Her hospitality and friendship made my stay in Poland truly enjoyable. Sociologist Renata Siemieńska and historian Anna Żarnowska, both at the University of Warsaw, discussed research questions with me and provided valuable information about women’s history in Poland. Archivists in Warsaw, Kraków, Częstochowa, and Nowy Sącz created a productive and pleasant working environment. I especially appreciate my interviewees’ willingness to discuss their experiences within the organization and in communist Poland more generally. In particular, I would like to thank Irena H. in Opole, Bozena N. in Warsaw, and Barbara K. in Nowa Huta. Irena not only spent numerous hours with me sharing her League experiences, but she and her husband also graciously invited me to stay in her home for a couple of days while I conducted interviews in Opole. She taught me how to cook a few Polish meals, set up interviews with numerous members, and even scheduled a radio interview about my project with a local radio station. Bożena provided me with names of League members and eagerly met with me twice, while Barbara chatted with me on numerous occasions and allowed me to take a box of League materials that she had in her possession home for a few days. Urszula and Robert Cierniak in Częstochowa as well as various family members throughout Poland opened their homes to me, cooked delicious meals, and engaged in lively conversation. Finally, I would like to thank Marci Shore, Danusia Nowakowska, Basia Sakson, Wanda Kamińska, and Bartholomew Goldstein for enjoyable meals and conversations. The Kościuszko Foundation, the Graduate School at OSU, and the International Department at OSU awarded me funding to conduct my research in Poland. A summer grant from the OSU v Department of History, a FLAS fellowship, and an OSU Presidential Fellowship allowed me to concentrate on my writing. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family who have been immensely supportive along the way, and especially my husband Ed Hohmann and two boys, Matthew and Thomas, for being patient with me as I completed my “dissy.” vi VITA January 22, 1970 …………………………………..Born – Nowy Sącz, Poland 1992.………………………………………………..B.A., Yale University 1998…………………………………………………M.A., The Ohio State University 2003…………………………………………………Instructor, The Ohio State University, Newark, Ohio Upper-Division American Women’s History 1997 – 2001…………………………………………Managing Editor, Journal of Women’s History 2000 – 2003…………………………………………Manuscript reviewer, Journal of Women’s History 1996 – 1997…………………………………………Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University American History (Early and Modern) PUBLICATIONS 1. “Regendering the Working Class in Stalin’s Russia,” review of Wendy Z. Goldman’s Women at the Gates: Gender and Industry in Stalin’s Russia, in Journal of Women’s History 15, no. 4 (2004). 2. “Enlightening ‘Backward Women:’ Agitators in the League of Women in Poland, 1949-1953,” Feminist Studies (forthcoming). 3. “Women in Poland: Society, Education, Politics, and Culture,” review of Anna Żarnowska and Andrzej Szwarc’s five-volume series on Polish women, in Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 1 (2001). 4. “Gender Discrimination in the Workforce as a Challenge to the Polish Feminist Movement,” in Płec-kobieta-feminizm (Gender-Woman-Feminism), ed. Zofia Gorczyńska, Sabina Kruszyńska, and Irena Zakidalska (Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 1997). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 League Membership …………………………………………………………………………...46 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .............................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................................iv Vita .........................................................................................................................................................vii