"Children in the spectacle of men"? : implementation of the suffrage by women from the south-eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic

On November 28, 1918, Chief of State Józef Piłsudski signed a decree prepared by the government of Jędrzej Moraczewski granting active and passive voting rights to women. At the same time, throughout the whole interwar period, civil law remained contrary to the principle of gender equality enshrined in the Constitution of March 1921. It resulted from the provisions of the legal codes of pre-war empires and was under requisition until 1939. Moreover, it is worth remembering that in the world of distribution and power relations, connections and distinguishing the “assigned” roles of male and female were more important than equality in parliamentary elections. The author of the article tries to show that there was a huge gap between the law and the actual political practice during the whole period. He examines pre-election calls for voting articles, reports from political meetings as well as articles on suffrage written by men and women. Different political parties had one thing in common - women were treated by their representatives as a beautification of politics, not as equal partners. It appears that not only men believed that they were better prepared for public world offices - the majority of women, even from the upper classes, shared this vision. The example of the south-eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic shows huge conservatism of the elite’s mentality.