‘The World of Female Fighters and Female Wanderers’: Pro-independence Women’s Groups in the Fight for Suffrage and National Independence in Poland

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article revisits the discussion about Polish women’s contribution to the fight for national independence, and women’s enfranchisement, considering the absence of First World War female activists in the mainstream narratives about the inception of the Polish state. The exploration of biographies of the female activists in the pro-independence female organizations, e.g. the Polish Women’s League for War Alert (LKPW, Liga Kobiet Polskich Pogotowia Wojennego, est. 1913), shows the intersection of feminist and nationalist goals, thus challenging the prevailing view that nationalists and feminists belonged to separate camps. The approaching war, but also the increasingly negative press about feminism, forced the leaders of the pro-independence groups to disguise their emancipationist ambitions under patriotic slogans. Given the country’s negative predisposition towards both socialism and feminism, the article proposes that it is precisely the feminist agenda, as well as the ties of the pro-independence activists to the Polish socialist movement, which have prevented their stories from becoming a legitimate part of historical discourse about Poland’s road to independence.