11/2016

Table of Contents

CIVITAS HOMINIBUS NR XI
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016

Introduction
Marek J. Malinowski, Rebellious, reformers, activists - women in the reality of transition (Different options and alternatives. Personal reflections)

ARTICLES – DISCUSSIONS – ESSEYS
Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka, Anna Maria van Schurman and the struggle for women’s education
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_19-24
Agnieszka Szczap, Mary Astell's Education Project
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_25-30
Katarzyna Turonek-Ostrowska, Francois Poulain de la Barre as an apologist for women
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_31-39
Katarzyna Ciarcińska, Proletarian Feminism of Rosa Luxemburg
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_41-48
Beata Łazarz, What is depicted in a portrait of a woman terrorist?
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_49-55
Inga B. Kuźma, City of work – city of women. Study from the perspective of women’s urban anthropology
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_57-90
Inga B. Kuźma, Edyta Pietrzak, Łódź Herstories as an Example of Research in the Women, War and Peace Project Supported by Europe for Citizens Programme
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_91-103
Natalia Judzińska, In the face of death and against death. Tactics of resistance used by female medical doctors and nurses in the Warsaw Ghetto
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_105-114
Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel, The Role of women’s social activists in the creation of cultural life among polish female prisoners in concentration camps during World War II
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_115-122
Dagmara Rode, On some faces of menstrual activism
https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5145.11/2016_123-135

MISCELLANEA
Andrzej Chodubski, The development of a local government in Poland and the challenges of civilization transformations
Anna Fligel, Notes from Paris. Musings about the Other
Elżbieta Dul-Ledwosińska, Graphics

REVIEWS
Hamdullah Baycar, Anja Manuel, This Brave New World: India, China and the United States
Dariusz Wilczek, Agnieszka Jachowicz Public-private partnership as a tool for effective implementation of public tasksRobert Żmuda, Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy
Edyta Pietrzak, Joanna Mysona-Byrska, On politics, political and anti-politics

FRAGMENTS OF AHE STUDENTS’ MASTER THESIS
Agata Dominiak, Sociao-political role of women in Republic of Poland
Milena Gniewaszewska, National security in terms of protection of information
Patrycja Kuśmierek, Women of Polish Peoples Republic - the road to equality
Sławomir Lubicz-Sienicki, Creating structures of the state as a guarantor of the security of citizens. On the example of the history of Ukraine in the twentieth and twenty-first century
Aleksandra Moczkowska, The main socio-political and economic changes of Lodz  in twenty and twenty first century
Renata Rubiś, Policy of personal safety and freedom in Poland in the context of police powers on the example of the Police Headquarter in Sieradz
Grzegorz Zasowski, Contemporary dimension of anti-Semitism in Poland. Picture of the past and the present

Abstracts

CIVITAS HOMINIBUS NR XI

ARTICLES – DISCUSSIONES – ESSAYS

Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka, Anna Maria van Schurman and the struggle for women’s education

Anna Maria van Schurman was one of the best educated women in the 17th-century Europe, a gifted linguist, a scholar of philosophy and theology, and a devoted member of the Reformed Church. She achieved international renown for her defence of women’s right to engage in scholarly pursuits. Her Dissertatio, de ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam et meliores litteras apitudine, published in 1641, deals with the question of whether women should be allowed to take part in higher education, and whether they are suited to carry out scholarly work. In her view, women’s scholarship should primarily focus on gaining a better understanding of the Bible and being a better Christian. The narrative perspective she chose allowed her to convince the learned male audience, who played a significant role in the education of women.

Keywords: women, education, Netherlands.

Agnieszka Szczap, Mary Astell's Education Project

The article presents the figure of the seventeenth-century thinker, Mary Astell. Because of her work as a writer and due to her social activities she has been called "the first English feminist." Using theological and philosophical arguments she argued that women should be educated. She rejected the widespread opinion which contended women were inherently less intelligent than men. She blamed social determinism and women’s lack of confidence in their own abilities for the lower intellectual achievement of women. She was convinced that the right education using Descartes’ insights could change the situation of women. Unlike other supporters of female education, Astell suggested that women should study for specific professions and thus become independent. Astell appreciated the advantages of education and wanted women to intellectually develop. To achieve this goal a special institution was to set up where women could be educated. This was to be an alternative to the traditional way of life defined by marriage. Astell not only described her educational project, she also tried to put it into practice

Keywords: women, education, philosophy, Astell, Descartes.

Katarzyna Turonek-Ostrowska, Francois Poulain de la Barre as a supporter of women

The article discusses the example of Francois Poulain de la Barre to highlight that not all men obstructed women’s participation in social life and not only women themselves fought for equal treatment. The presentation of Poulain’s views allows us to look at the issue of women in the seventeenth century from a broader perspective, as in the 17th century women were left in the shadow of men and were not treated as equal partners in deliberations.
Poulain gave equal opportunities to men and women to determine themselves. Accepting Descartes’ criticism of the ‘experience’ method as being an erroneous way of studying reality, it is shown that the daily experience of the behaviour of both sexes does not reflect the true nature of man and woman. We need to get rid of gender bias. When men and women have the appropriate knowledge and tools they can achieve the same results in every area of life. In addition, it has been shown that in the historical context Poulain can appear as a supporter of women. He made a large contribution to the consideration of their social situation. The philosopher demanded social change. For Poulain, the idea of gender equality inhered in the concept of social equality in general.

Keywords: Francois Poulain de la Barre, sex, man, woman, marriage.

Katarzyna Ciarcińska, Proletarian Feminism of Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg criticised the suffrage movement as being focused on bourgeois women, but neglecting the needs of proletarian women. According to Luxemburg, proletarian women deserved political rights, since they were the most oppressed group in the unjust socio–economical system.
In 1914, the magazine Sozialdemokratische Korrespondenz published Luxemburg's article The Proletarian Woman, written for International Women's Day, where she vividly portrays the oppression of working women, and articulates opposition to the cruelty and exploitation experienced by women of all races and nationalities:
A world of female misery awaits deliverance. Here the wife of the small farmer groans, almost breaking under the burden of life. There in German Africa in the Kalahari desert the bones of defenceless Herero women bleach, driven to a cruel death from hunger and thirst by German soldiers. In the high mountains of Putumayo on the other side of the ocean, unheard by the world, death screams die away of the martyred Indian women in the rubber plantations of the international capitalists.*

In my opinion, Rosa Luxemburg was ahead of her times and Third Wave Feminism should include her views. Both Jewish and Polish, Luxemburg would not enter a traditionally understood marriage, and as a leader of the international working–class movement, she had a deep understanding of the minorities she represented and fought for. She dreamed of a better world, where women and men together could change the basis of the existing social order.
* Rosa Luxemburg The Proletarian Woman.

Keywords: Rosa Luxemburg, Feminism, Proletarian Feminism, Third Wave Feminism.

Beata Łazarz, What is depicted in a portrait of a woman terrorist?

The aim of this article is to analyse the psychological conditioning involved in the image-creation of Kora, a Polish female suicide bomber of the 1905 Revolution, as presented in Andrzej Strug’s novel “Portrait”. The female terrorist strongly declared her will to sacrifice her life for national and social ideals. Reference to Polish romantic mythology, in particular to the topos of crazy hero, formed a basis for idealising her by the artist, who volunteered to portray her. His ambition was to create an icon of a “terrorist saint”, which was to reflect the spiritual perfection of the heroine as well as have the power of a “miraculous image”. Using the psychoanalytic tools, in particular those rooted in the theories of Hanna Segal and Julia Kristeva, the conscious and subconscious motivations of both the terrorist and artist are revealed. It allowed the recognition of the reasons behind the artist’s inability to create the portrait: defence mechanisms, such as splitting and defence fantasies, which made it impossible for him to confront the ambivalence and ambiguity of Kora, negatively affecting his ability to create a portrait of the terrorist.

Keywords: woman terrorist, psychoanalysis, art.

Inga B. Kuźma, City of work – city of women. A study from the perspective of women’s urban anthropology

The author of this article carried out her analysis on the base of qualitative research data. The data was collected during the 1960s by the Scientific Archive of Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Culture at University of Lodz. The author makes reference to others type of sources as well. The archive research data concerns local worker culture and life in Lodz in the past. The data is treated by author as a special kind of “field” in the ethnographic sense. The goal of the article is to interpret the data from the perspective of gender studies in the context a Lodz's history as a city of labour and first of all, as a city of female workers, who worked in the textile industry.

Keywords: women studies, work; anthropology of culture, urban anthropology, archive qualitative field-research data.

Inga B. Kuźma, Edyta Pietrzak, Łódź Herstories as an Example of Research in the Women, War and Peace Project Supported by Europe for Citizens Programme

Łódź herstories are the first stage in the development of anti-exclusion and anti-war educational program Women, War and Peace supported by Europe for Citizens programme. The program is based on promotion and development of empathy as well as modification of cultural memory about World War II to include in its resources the perspective of women: the most numerous and anonymous war victims. All these motifs are present in the life histories of female Łódź dwellers that we have chosen. 

Keywords: herstory, women, war, peace, Łódź.

Natalia Judzińska, In the face of death and against death. Tactics of resistance used by female medical doctors and nurses in the Warsaw Ghetto

Resistance strategies against invaders are mainly associated with armed resistance, combat or other forms of force. Culturally, resistance is assigned to men, who use physical strength to oppose other men. As a result of Nazi policies, from the beginning of 1940's, European Jews were physically isolated from the rest of society and were mass-murdered in the Holocaust. Nonetheless, in many ghettos people fought for their lives or tried to survive and help others in making it through. I identify these endeavours as a form of resistance because they were conducted against the Naazi government's plans. This article is an attempt to indicate certain nonviolent actions which meet the criteria of resistance but are not recognized as such.

Keywords: Gender, Warsaw Ghetto, Civil resistance, Holocaust.

Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel, The Role of women’s social activists in the creation of cultural life among Polish female prisoners in concentration camps during World War II

One of the survival strategies pursued in the concentration camps was to engage in cultural life. It became a form of mental and spiritual escape from dehumanization. The participation in any kind of cultural activities gave inmates some distance from wickedness of camp reality. Cultural life could be expressed in the form of literature recitation or even para-theatre activity and sometimes real performances, especially unofficially in blocks. Analyzing the story of Janina Peretjatkowicz, Karla Lanckorońska, Maja Berezowska, Waleria Felchnerowska or Matylda Woliniewska we can argue that their work was successful because they were educated, professionally active and also socially-involved before the war.

Keywords: strategies of surviving, cultural life, concentration camps, resistance from dehumanization. mental escape, para-theatre activities, social activists, Janina Peretjatkowicz, Karla Lanckorońska, Maja Berezowska, Waleria Felchnerowska  Matylda Woliniewska.

Dagmara Rode, On some faces of menstrual activism

The problem of the stigma of menstruation has been often raised by feminist artists and theoreticians. Their different forms of activism, their contentions and strategies have been presented in their texts. The goals of menstrual activists have been different over the years: from breaking the menstrual taboo, changes in the language and in women’s attitudes toward menstrual bleeding (and their bodies as well), applying pressure on the producers of hygiene products, to radical reformulation of not only our habits, but also understanding of menstruation and the very notion of femininity. This article analyses examples of actions and, at the same time, showing how menstrual activism tackles key issues of the feminist movement.

Keywords: menstruation; feminist movement; menstrual activism.

MISCELLANEA

Andrzej Chodubski, Contemporary development of a local government in Poland

The study presents that a local government is as a decentralising reality, opposite of the globalisation processes. In the realisation of a local government, an important role is played by the political and construction of citizenship processes. In shaping the face of a local government in Poland, a force of tradition and post-modernisation value collide (including negating heritage of the past, the authority of the people of a cultural life). The process of political and economic transition reveal trends to getting acquainted with foreign designs (Anglo-Saxon) of a cultural life; in this situation, localism becomes a particular value. The level of development of a local government is a measure of the socio-political life, including its democracy.

Keywords: local government, political changes in Poland, globalisation, localism, political awareness.