In historiographies of Galicia, the theme of “backwardness” runs through most analyses and explanations. Backwardness has become a sufficient argument in itself that does not require scrutiny -- both in the historiography and in the political projects and social analyses of the time. This is also true for women's movements ...
(Show more)In historiographies of Galicia, the theme of “backwardness” runs through most analyses and explanations. Backwardness has become a sufficient argument in itself that does not require scrutiny -- both in the historiography and in the political projects and social analyses of the time. This is also true for women's movements and politics in Galicia. Comparing the women's movements in all three lands of partitioned Poland, most scholars claim that the nucleus of activities took place in Warsaw, in the Russian partition, where the social situation after the 1863 uprising (such as the displacement of insurgents to Siberia, Russification, etc.) and the embrace of positivism made possible new social movements. The activities in Galicia seemed to be imported from the Russian partition, because the conservative mainstream in Galicia prevented a radical women's movement of its own. So runs the master narrative for the Polish women's movements. When comparing the Polish women's movements to western movements, historians have argued that Polish women were less radical and less feminist (meaning less willing to act independently from men). In a word, it is suggested that in relation to the west, the Polish women’s movement was “backwards.” The main explanation for this is Poland’s Catholicism and the prioritising of national liberation over women’s emancipation.
But there were many "modern" and also feminist activities and arguments in the politics of Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian women. This is particularly visible, I argue, in projects that were defined as "social work". Most political movements in Galicia used the paradigm of "backwardness" to legitimize their work called "praca organiczna (organical work)", "Gegenwartsarbeit" a.s.o. They argued that progress depended on reforming society, which was always defined in ethnic terms as either Polish, Ukrainian, or Jewish. In other words, it was the backwardness of a specific society that legitimated these women’s participation in social activities. This is also true for the women's movements/politics in Galicia. I will suggest in this paper that in order to overcome the "master narrative" of the social and political backwardness of the women's movement, we must analyse the use of the notion of "backwardness" itself – along with "national identity" – as political strategies for a region which is marginalized as peripheral, or in some cases as a border region between modernity and tradition.
Using postcolonial concepts this paper will analyse the social work of Polish women in Galicia - especially those that addressed peasant women. I will consider the work of Maria Wyslouchowa, an activist for the intellectual peasant movement who particularly concentrated on women, and I will compare her work with other initiatives, including Ukrainian and Jewish projects. I will show that a similar framework grounded all of these projects. Further, I suggest that they were formulated in one society – rather than in separate societies defined by ethnic groups – where groups were competing for social positions. The women of these movements were constructing themselves as new - intellectual – elite that offered the power and the concepts to modernize the society.
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