A collection devoted to Polish feminist thought shows the richness of the movement, from the 1900s to the queer turn through the socialist period. This little-known story opens the way to a genealogy and a comparison of European sororities.
Since the PiS offensives against the right to abortion, the cause of Polish women has received increased attention in the West. If the “ women’s strike » (Strajk Kobiet) gave it a wide resonance, we still do not know that Polish women were among the first Europeans to obtain the right to vote (1918), legal access toIVG (1956), and that the current setbacks find their origin in the post-communist transition.
It is to this growing, but incomplete, interest that the anthology responds Becoming a sister directed by Mateusz Chmurski (Sorbonne University) and Hélène Martinelli (ENS Lyon). They summon the great texts of Polish feminist thought, to exhume its history and the women who shaped it.
An editorial and political gesture
At the origins of Becoming a sisteran observation: despite their richness and their age, Polish feminisms remain unknown to the French-speaking public, including the most informed. Mateusz Chmurski and Hélène Martinelli attribute this lack of knowledge to the inaccessibility of the founding texts, most of which have no translation. They propose to remedy this by giving as many people as possible to read, and in all its diversity, “ a thought that has been developing for over a hundred years » (p. 13).
The anthology pursues several objectives. It first seeks to deconstruct the vision “ binary and simplistic of an obscurantist Poland », to whom the enlightened West would have instilled feminist ideas. She then participated in a movement to recognize the socialist experience, still in its infancy in the French intellectual debate, calling for “ another genealogy of contemporary feminisms » than that forged by the French-speaking and English-speaking currents (p. 16).
At a time when feminist consciousness is becoming more widespread and the European center of gravity is moving towards the East, this collection affirms the need to pay attention to the voices of “ other Europe » and to the solidarity that is organized there beyond the borders fixed by our imaginations. As the introduction points out, the title Becoming a sister – borrowed from the lesbian author Narcyza Żmichowska (1819-1876) – is not insignificant: it invites us to sorority.
This ambition is reflected in the editorial choices of Mateusz Chmurski and Hélène Martinelli. The format is intended to be “ humble » (less than 250 pages) ; the summary, selective: fourteen texts, not exhaustive, but representative of the developments of Polish feminist thought from the beginning of the XXe century to the present day. The adoption of a genealogical perspective makes it possible to place Polish feminisms in a long history and to thwart Western periodization by “ waves ”, not very effective in the local context.
Specialists in Central European literature, they based their selection on “ prose of ideas, with an essayistic dimension » (p. 14). Expressing themselves there, in a variety of registers (articles, extracts from works, speeches) and an incisive style, are writers, philosophers, politicians, activists and academics, whether they claim to be feminists or not, testifying to Polish plurality. Each text is preceded by a biographical and contextual notice situating the contribution of its author in the national and international concert of feminisms.
We will note, throughout the work, the use of references well known to the Western public, intended to help them understand the figures present. The MP Maria Jaszczuk (1915-2007) and the woman of letters Zofia Nałkowska (1884-1954) are respectively nicknamed “ Polish Simone Veil ” And “ the Polish Virginia Woolf “, just as the work of Irena Krzywicka (1899-1994) announces “ in several respects The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir » (p. 65).
Three periods of a century of feminism
The corpus is organized in three parts corresponding to three major moments in Polish feminism. The first, dedicated to “ pioneers », brings together texts written between 1907 and 1932, a period when the feminist fight rubbed shoulders with that for the independence of the nation. We discover the provocative pen of Kazimiera Bujwidowa (1867-1932), suffragist and activist for women’s access to education, Zofia Nałkowska, first woman member of the Polish Academy of Literature, and her colleague Irena Krzywicka, at the forefront of the fight for sexual freedom and family planning. From prostitution to crisis of masculinity », through consented motherhood, their words are striking in their modernity and contemporary resonance.
The second part, entitled “ policy and practice », takes us into the parliamentary debate of April 1956 which resulted in legal and free access toIVG for more than thirty years in Poland. The speeches of three deputies – Maria Jaszczuk, rapporteur of the bill, Zofia Tomczyk (1920-2006) and Wanda Gościmińska (1914-2000) – expose the reality of Polish women faced with unwanted pregnancies under communism, between precarious living conditions and the weight of the Church, as well as the responses given to this “ urgent social problem “. The liberalization of the right to abortion, like the trajectories of these female politicians, illustrates the contradictions of an authoritarian regime which, through its egalitarian project, nevertheless contributed to female emancipation.
The third part provides an overview of contemporary feminisms after 1989. Three texts are dedicated to the disillusionments of the democratic transition which, through the alliance of elites of Solidarity and episcopate, restored a patriarchal order in Poland. Sławomira Walczewska (1999), Agnieszka Graff (1999) and Maria Janion (2009) analyze its cultural foundations – between romantic heritage and “ chivalrous sexual contract » – and account for the difficult recomposition of the women’s movement in a society dominated by anti-communism, religion, and neoliberal transformations.
Izabela Morska (2000) introduces the lesbian question into a heteronormative activist landscape ; Zuzanna Radzik (2015), that of Catholic feminism. Klementyna Suchanow (2020) tells how Strajk Kobiet has become the spearhead of international resistance to national populism and religious fundamentalism. We end this initiatory journey with Sylwia Chutnik (2020), the incarnation of feminism queer and anchored in digital cultures, where humor serves to challenge the ordinary sexism of dziaders (“ old geezers “). The whole allows us to glimpse the multiple facets of Polish thought grappling with its time.
A promising first step
Halfway between the academic essay and the general public work, the anthology Becoming a sister achieves an editorial tour de force by managing to combine intellectual rigor, accessibility and the pleasure of reading. The relevance of the selection makes it possible to trace “ a century of Polish feminism » in a limited number of texts. It also reveals the singularity and power of a feminist expression mixing poetry, acerbity and irony.
A complex story emerges throughout the pages, made of ruptures and continuities, but above all of agency. Supported by notes and references provided, the volume confirms its educational and political vocation, counterbalancing the victim narrative and the paradigm of “ catching up », dominant in the West.
However, some limitations can be noted. The sections of the collection appear slightly unbalanced: the section devoted to contemporary feminisms brings together the majority of the texts. The post-communist period and the boom of the years 2015-2020 are grouped together, where a distinction would have made it possible to better understand recent developments. The part dedicated to communism focuses only on abortion, leaving aside the Polish sexual revolution. Finally, we can regret the absence of male voices and the new generation, like Tomasz Kaliściak or Maja Staśko, representative of committed youth.
With this “ polyphony » Polish, Mateusz Chmurski and Hélène Martinelli inaugurate a project as welcome as it is necessary in the French editorial field. Beyond the homage (or “ femage “), the anthology offers a new reception space for feminisms from Central and Eastern Europe and encourages dialogue. She reminds us that gender issues, far from being anecdotal, are at the heart of Poland’s political history and determine its understanding.