Locally and Globally: Polish Communist Women Activists and Post-War Transnational Emancipation Efforts, and How to Write About Them Today

The chapter discusses the activism of Polish communist women committed to implementing the government’s programme for women’s emancipation after World War II. Focusing on the decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, while referring to the earlier period, it shows the evolution of this activism, primarily through the example of relationships between Polish and foreign women’s rights advocates. Drawing on the analysis of two women’s magazines, Nasza Praca (Our Work) and Women of the Whole World, press organs of the Polish League of Women and the Women’s International Democratic Federation, respectively, it reveals that many significant discussions on women’s rights were held in Poland and that Polish women took the initiative in creating globally important regulations and worked to get them implemented. From the 1960s onwards, their political and intellectual role grew, proving that “late socialism” was far from losing influence on shaping the international debate.