Polish Culture Search

[cskrocki]

Hi all
I live in the United States and I am doing research on Polish Culture for a course that I am taking. I am looking for personal perspectives rather than all text info. I am Polish so there is a personal interest as well. If anyone is interested in contributing their thoughts please get in touch with me. I have a few specific questions but you are free to contribute what you find to be unique about Polish Culture.

Question 1) Division of labor

In my research I found that traditionally women stayed at home and took care of the house and family, but as of 1996 woman made up 43% of the work force.

How has the increase impacted society and family life?

Is it true that women, on average, have very few leadership roles in business and politics?



Thanks
Chad

[Jaga]

Chad,

I believe that in many aspects women in Poland are more emancipated than women in the USA. They have to work in order for the familys to survive. Families in Poland also have less kids than in the USA, please read it here:

culture.polishsite.us/smfamily.html#WOMEN

causes of unemloyment among women
culture.polishsite.us/articles/art160.html

Mother's day in Poland
culture.polishsite.us/articles/art191.html

[kaima]

cskrocki said:

Hi all
I live in the United States and I am doing research on Polish Culture for a course that I am taking. I am looking for personal perspectives rather than all text info.

Thanks
Chad

Hi Chad -
I am Slovak (American) rather than Polish, but perhaps the perspective of a neighbor to Poland can get some conversation started. My family is separated from Poland by the Poprad River, which is not a very formidable barrier. One time I asked how they could afford several big colored televisions and they smiled and replied "Polish smugglers". Another time a cousin was building a new house in the village and as he showed me around we discussed cost as well, and he said that much of the material was purchased in Poland. It was far cheaper that way than buying it in Slovakia. This seems to fly in the face of Poles commonly talking of going to Slovakia for vacations because it is cheaper there!

While working in Germany it was quite apparent that many Germans have an attitude toward Polish people and Poland (and Czechs) quite comparable to the US attitude toward Mexicans. Mexico is a good source of cheap labor so they drive the wages down. They steal cars on a regular basis and they run brothels along the border to service the rich neighbors. All of these problems and attitudes were quite active and alive ten years ago. I cannot say how it has changed today; I no longer live in Germany.

In 1993 I also worked in Latvia and Lithuania and the people there cautioned me "If you drive across Poland, do not drive at night. If the sun starts setting then get to Warsaw and check into a hotel with a watched parking lot. If you drive at night the thieves may take your life."

So there was quite a variety of opinions about the Poles and attitudes that generally were not complimentary. Next year I hope to take a few days to bicycle along the Polish side of the border. In daylight of course. They may drive like Slovaks!

Does anyone else have experience that backs this up or runs counter to wheat I have related? I would like to hear about it myself.

Kai

[jimpres]

Kai,
Is the labor that the Germans used legal? Here the Mexican are not legal. So besides driving down the salaries they use all the resources at no cost to them. Health, school etc. So things here have gotten worse. We have 10M illegals in the US and that is after we provided amnesty to about 3-4 million a few years back.

[gardenmoma]

cskrocki said:

Hi all
I live in the United States and I am doing research on Polish Culture for a course that I am taking. I am looking for personal perspectives rather than all text info. I am Polish so there is a personal interest as well.

Thanks
Chad

Chad,

Are you interested in Polish culture here in the U.S.? or Polish culture in Poland?

As my (now grown-up) children like to tell me "Watch the generalities, Mom!" So, between generalities and anecdotes you might find you have a big job.

Where did you find those statistics?

My daughter did an interesting paper a while back for a course in "Human Resources" about the roles women in our family have played beginning with her grandmothers to herself, sisters and cousins. It was a very interesting genealogical as well as attitudinal approach. She was also very careful to cite where she found her statistics. These were also very surprising to me.

She also, at one time, did a paper on roles and attitudes during the 1939-1945 times among women of her grandmothers' ages her in the U.S. She interviewed her grandmothers as well as some women she personally knew. And, of course, compared her anecdotes to sound statistics.

Hope this helps...

You've come to the right place for help If someone here dpesn't know an answer, another someone can usually come up with either an answer or a source.

GM

[Yanc]

HI

I am polish, living in Poland. I can provide you some information:

Here is official goverment statistic "Men and women on work market"

www.stat.gov.pl/dane_spol-gosp/praca_ludnosc/kob_mez_praca/index.htm

You said "Is it true that women, on average, have very few leadership roles in business and politics? "

No, this is not true. At least not quite true.

For example:

- our lower house of parlament has 20% women members
- our higher house - 23%
- public administartion - 10% (leadership roles only),

Here's another link:

www.oska.org.pl/pe/kobiety/polska.html

Both the articles are in polish, let me know in you need an translation.

Yanc

[kaima]

jimpres said:

Kai,
Is the labor that the Germans used legal?

You raise a good point Jim, and it points out that Chad should take care to date the cultural events and attitudes he records on Poland. Cultures are living beings and the last few decades have seen great change in Polish governments, freedoms and presumably attitudes.

In this case I am referring to the time period after the Berlin Wall opened up and it probably carried on until Poland joined the EU. Yes, the Polish workers I referred to were illegal. They worked "black", which is the German way of saying "off the books". They earned substandard wages and no benefits, and in three months some could earn enough return to Poland and support the family the rest of the year. I do not have statistics, and the few numbers I once knew I have forgotten. It was enough to offer severe and unfair competition to legitimate German firms. I was closely associated with a small German firm so I was well exposed to the problem as it developed.

On the positive side, there were (and probably still are) Polish construction skills that virtually do not exist in Germany. Doing the fancy stucco works you see in palaces and old opera houses is a specific example. Most of the Germans who could do that died out with the WW II generation, and they are the ones who told me about the Poles. They were imported even during communist times as specialists. Presumably the next generation of stucco work specialists learned their trade in the necessary reconstruction of Poland after the war, and then later when Germany started restoration of a lot of the fancy work, their skilled hand workers were few in number and aging, so Poles were brought in. The quality of their work was well prized.

Kai

Kai

[aadam]

Kai, I don't want to get into a discussion here, since I have no time to fullfil this task. But, passing over if you are right ot wrong in the specific matters you name, do you think that they somehow form the core of "Polish Culture Quest" to begin with?

PS. I don't know about building materials, hope they are as cheap as can be in Poland, but certainly life and vacations in Slovakia are much cheaper than in Poland

[kaima]

aadam said:

. But, passing over if you are right ot wrong in the specific matters you name, do you think that they somehow form the core of "Polish Culture Quest" to begin with?
quote]

Yes, I did think that this fit under culture. Do you limit culture to specific parts of life? The second posting was to the side, but in answer to a specific question.

Kai

[Jaga]

Guys,

still when I compare the situation of Polish women in the society with our neighbors like Russia or Germany - Polish women are more emancipated. Sorry - I had an error in my previous mesage. I did not really try to compare women to men just women in Poland to women somewhere else.

But probably the most emancipated women in Europe are in Great Britain.

[Jaga]

yanc said:

HI

I am polish, living in Poland. I can provide you some information:

Here is official goverment statistic "Men and women on work market"

www.stat.gov.pl/dane_spol-gosp/praca_ludnosc/kob_mez_praca/index.htm

You said "Is it true that women, on average, have very few leadership roles in business and politics? "

No, this is not true. At least not quite true.

For example:

- our lower house of parlament has 20% women members
- our higher house - 23%
- public administartion - 10% (leadership roles only),

Here's another link:

www.oska.org.pl/pe/kobiety/polska.html

Both the articles are in polish, let me know in you need an translation.

Yanc

Yanc, Arek

thanks for posting the picture! What about the article about the history of Brodnica in our site? Would you like to write something about it and also add a couple of pictures to it?

[Yanc]

admin said:

Yanc, Arek

thanks for posting the picture! What about the article about the history of Brodnica in our site? Would you like to write something about it and also add a couple of pictures to it?

I could give it a try, however, i don't think there is much to write. My Brodnica is small village of population about 700. Nothing really interesting about it. :-). I promise I will look for an intersting topic I could write , about Brodnica, or maybe something nearby.

Yanc.

[jimpres]

Yanc,
Write about your sister city to the north, Brodnica, they have an old castle there.

[Yanc]

Never been there, never seen it.
Yanc

[jimpres]

Brodnica Knights Castle, north Brodnica

www.brodnica.pl/strony/wydzialy/wartozobaczyc/img/zamek/zamekg1.jpg










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