Atheism, anti-church, feminism and the Women’s Strike. Group case study: Gals 4 Gals (Dziewuchy Dziewuchom)

Abstract

Poland has been entering a period of accelerated secularisation in recent years. The results of the CBOS survey indicate that this process is visible especially in the youngest cohorts of Poles. The Women’s Strike, which took place between 2016 and 2020, is described in the academic literature as one of the factors accelerating secularisation processes, mainly in the population of young women with feminist views. In 2021, we surveyed members of the Facebook group “Gals 4 Gals” (Dziewuchy Dziewuchom) to describe the diverse relationship between feminism and atheism and to verify our hypothesis that the Women’s Strike was an expression, rather than a cause, of respondents’ atheist attitudes. It was also important for our quantitative research to determine the attitudes of the group members surveyed towards issues such as the political activities of the Catholic Church, the operation of the moral principles of Catholicism, and perceived spiritual needs.