Violence Against Women - 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence

U.S. Embassy Warsaw is actively participating in the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” by raising awareness of the problem through a series of profiles of individuals and institutions actively working to end violence against women in Poland. 

 

Beata Kozak
Editor in chief of feminist magazine Zadra and a member of eFKa Women's Foundation in Krakow

How has life for women in Poland changed over the last 20 years?

After 1989, it became legal to register any party or organization.  However, the years of the Polish People’s Republic transformed into an era of right-wing parties and the rule of the Catholic Church.  Women’s liberty was immediately limited by an antiabortion law that forces women to have children regardless of the circumstances (since the few exceptions allowed by the law are practically useless). Consequently, women after 1989 have not been as liberated as men. Polish women often own small businesses and have been successful with them, but they are often -- more often than men -- criticized for ‘violating’ social norms.

Our society still accepts gender-based violence. Women are encouraged to take their lives in their hands.  Feminist groups prior to every election publicize wider female participation in the country’s political life, but it is often done in a condescending manner and boils down to treating them/us as ‘our beautiful ladies.’ As a result, women’s names are at the bottom of the lists of candidates. 
 
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Polish women today?

Social activity and personal courage. Taking action not only in business but also in defending women’s rights, identifying with other women, and criticizing the teachings of the Catholic church, which still promotes the stale model of the ever-sacrificing Polish Mother. Women’s personal courage is critical to ensuring our rights and guaranteeing that they are not violated. Women actively defend the rights of certain groups (e.g. professional groups, which can be observed in street protests by nurses or female teachers). But when the Church requires them to carry the cross of an abusive husband, a trade union will not help.  Women need to stay unified and work together to defend their rights and interests.

What is your organization’s main goal, and how are you working to achieve it?

One of the statutory goals of the Women’s Foundation eFKa is education and the promotion of women’s culture. We have published a feminist periodical entitled Zadra for the last 9 years -- the only feminist magazine in Poland. We publish feminist literature and run a feminist reading room. We recently awarded the first Narcyza Zmichowska’s Feminist Literary Award founded by Professor Ann Snitow from New School for Social Research. To fight gender-based discrimination and violence we, for example, organized in 2001-2004 a 3-year train-the-trainer course in WenDo. Thanks to our efforts, we have 15 certified female trainers of WenDo in Poland.  To assist unemployed university female graduates, we organized a project within the framework of the European Social Fund entitled the Academy of Entrepreneurship. Out of the 120 women who participated in the project, over 50 found employment and 18 set up their own businesses

What accomplishment in your career are you most proud of, and what do you still hope to accomplish?

I find the continued publication of Zadra in spite of scarce resources to be a great success. Another example of success is the letters to the editor we receive there, in which our young female readers write that if their mothers had read such a magazine in their youth they would have gone to universities, invested in their careers and protested against being treated so poorly. And they write that Zadra is the only periodical they read from cover to cover. Life would be beautiful if we could have steady financial support for Zadra and be able to have more than just 2-3 issues a year.

If you could change one thing about Polish society, what would it be? 

Poland would be better off if we focused on our shared interests and not just individual interests. If there was less competition and egocentrism and more cooperation. Poland would also be better off if we -- Polish men and women -- could for once forget about we the people and start thinking about ourselves as members of civil society. I wish we were less conservative as a society.