Role of Women in the Solidarity Movement during Communism in Poland - Research Paper Example

 Gender Norm Violation: Role of women in the Solidarity Movement during Communism in Poland INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES In this materialistic era Human Being are born like an empty slate that is molded by its civilization and contiguous. In other words we can say that a society builds and prototype a gender according to its own intentions by setting universal rules or enforcing laws. Today there are many organizations who are dedicated to human rights issues and mainly toward educating people about gender discrimination in order to prevent human rights violation. An interesting fact is that not only under developing countries but developed and ultra modern societies are facing this susceptible issue of gender discrimination. In every society women has to struggle hard in order to get her rights and in fact there are many under developing countries where women even don’t know about her rights and is paying high price to survive. After getting frustrated of gender discrimination issue many women tried to rebel against these norms and Polish women was one of them who decided to come out of their house to get their rights through solidarity movement. Solidarity was born in result of strikes by shipyards, factory and transportation workers. As a result almost 1 million workers laid down their utensils and became active in non violent protests. Women succeeded in breaking many taboos by defeating communism in Poland through solidarity movement that received International attention as it was the largest strike in history of the world that began in 1980 and ended on December 31, 1989. Among ten million solidarity memberships fifty percent were women. (Kristi S.Long 1996) “Solidarity renowned for being the social movement that joined the working class and the intelligentsia” 1 Shana Penn explains the situation that in times of strike, “it is an extreme winter, and the majority of the individuals you used to work with have been arrested, all the telephones lines are cut off, the streets of your hometown are crowded with police and tanks, soldiers are warming up by street-side fires”2 Women expressed their activism in this faction through communal means like edification, grass root union organization, parish venture and most importantly the unfriendliness press. In 1980’s martial law, women played an important role in unshackling the solidarity movement and building a free press. But still social class of these professional women were dogged by the class position of their husbands as (Kristi S.Long 1996) says, “They have a high level of education, but the state socialist system strongly devalued educations that were not industrial”3. No matter how educated they are, they always get less pays than Polish men and fewer opportunities to groom herself too. The only identity of women was her husband’s identity. Women were not given any leadership position and were kept away of any political discussion or conference but still they kept on working to make solidarity movement successful. It sounds ironic that a woman who was responsible for home, has to raise her children and gives emotional and moral support to her men was given less representation in society. Communists promised to give emancipation to women but this so called emancipation was not much different than new market ideology. (Cheris Kramarae 2000) , “once women are relieved of work outside the homes, numerous social ills like high divorce rates, single motherhood, broken families, and declining birth rates will be mended”4. The reason behind this thinking might be the male prevailing culture, lack of adequate political proficiency, lack of admittance to enough sources and lack of reliable electorate. They were bound to community or civic leaders and were not given any high level political position. Another irony of Polis was that they believe a woman is made just to sustain her disempowered husband. They were afraid of women dominance in society that why instead of encouraging and appreciating women’s effort polis after communism became great violator of women rights through their policies like banning abortion and decreasing 30 percent of their pays. Rate of unemployment increased to 60 percent in this era. Women have to pay high price of participation in solidarity movement moreover many high level female leaders being diminish. Consequences that occur after the communism itself portray the gender discrimination in Poland. Woman in Poland are still trying to get rid of law that impose ban on abortion. Less pays and unemployment rate is another important factor that shows how female are being discriminated in Poland. If we analyze gender violation issues throughout the world, we get to know that even American women is facing issues like less pays and less employment rates. Like most male dominant societies Polish also believe that women should not be empowered and should not be given more opportunities than men as they will not obey them and will no more remain in their control once she get to know about her abilities. It is a general perception that women who earn more than her husband is not in control of her husband and did not obey them as she starts thinking if she is more capable of her husband whereas reality is something else. Actually men started feeling being underestimated if his wife is more capable than him. Abortion was made another life and death issue in Polish society. Many women died because of complications in their pregnancy or in other words we can say that so-called law was more important than human life. An overview of this movement reveals that women has worked hard than men and has played her role but yet were not appreciated just because of gender discrimination in society. Moreover many intellectuals summit to the rise in rates of divorce and female-headed households since evolution as supplementary penalty of social and economic change. Whereas if women are progressively more fiscally answerable for households and children, and if status grants are becoming sparse in areas of childcare, healthcare, and other basic provisions, then women’s toil vigor input becomes the key erratic for the financial well-being of present and future cohort. Below are some facts about decreasing employment rates in Poland: 1988 1993 2000 Women Working 78.8 67.3 48.5 Unemployed 0.6 9.6 20.3 Maternity Leave 6.7 5.6 0.5 Keeping House 9.3 10.9 12.2 Retired 0.5 1.1 10.2 Other 4.1 5.5 8.3 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 The critical analysis of gender discrimination in Poland during solidarity movement proves that no matter how strongly woman is playing her role in society she will be discriminated just because of being women. Not only in Poland but other civilizations of the world also believe that women should be kept in four walls of her house and should not be given enough freedom to raise her voice for her rights. Woman has played her role successfully but society failed to pay the price of her sacrifices and acknowledging her efforts. References Cheris Kramarae, Dale Spender. Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women. 2000. Kristi S.Long. We all fought for freedom:women in Poland's Solidarity movement. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. Shana Penn, Solidarity’s Secret: the women who defeated communism in Poland, United States, The University of Michigan Press Read More