Winners and Losers: Gender Contracts in the New Political and Economic Situation

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of trends in the new conceptualization of women's and men's roles and their behaviors in the public and private spheres in transforming Polish society, and the factors determining these trends. Certain social groups pay a particularly high price. These include the elderly as well as a large portion of women and youth just entering the labor market. In the 1990s the postulated model of the woman and her place in Polish society became a subject of intense political controversy. As a result of the experiences of the first years of functioning under the conditions of the new system in which mechanisms for selecting the "actors" of political and economic life differ from the previous ones, men perceive the increased presence of women in these areas as growing competition for access to a limited number of positions. At the same time, there has been a decline in the willingness of a large part of society to cultivate the traditional division of roles, which has been exacerbated in particular by unemployment and lowered living standards. This in turn has increased the importance of flexible adaptation to the possibilities of local labor markets in the interests of basic survival and the protection of one's living standards. Changes in both the economic and political systems are bringing about society's slow process of adaptation on the plane of values and attitudes they already possess, making them more consistent with the behaviors forced by living conditions and building a basis for new social contracts between men and women in Polish society. Social differentiation of the society distinguishes the goals, aspirations, and strategies of men and women belonging to various social groups. The fact that women in Poland are more educated than men undoubtedly contributes to the formation of women's awareness of their rights in a democratic system. The question that remains is not whether, but how quickly, women will begin to play a significant role in public life.