Female Citizenship in Poland in the Light of Florian Znaniecki’s Ideas

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the civic activity of women in the public sphere. Citizen activity is a type of social action that fosters the expansion of the public sphere, the strengthening of democracy and the emergence of civil society. These actions, on the one hand, are based on formalised rules and laws. On the other hand, they are conditioned by the cultural area in which they arise, spread and gain social acceptance. Citizen activity, therefore, is structured in organisational and institutional terms, but above all, it is shaped by habits of culture, environmental habits, symbols, habits, and other informal elements that become so persistent in the individual’s social personality that they define Type and scope of activities undertaken by it. Each community generates its own model of active citizenship or takes it from others, adjusting to its own realities or internal conditions. Citizenship patterns are influenced by many factors, among which gender is a very important socio-cultural construct. Gender citizenship arises as a result of collective gender stereotypes, that is, with regard to how different communities perceive gender based on the characteristics of the sex attributed or gendered. The views on citizen activity presented by contemporary sociologists are widely known, whereas works published on this subject in Polish by Florian Znaniecki are not. Threfore the article presents Znaniecki’s concept of the Ideas of Nation-Society under Democratic Conditions on the Example of contemporary Poland.