Volume 14 (2023)

2023

Publication date: 2023

Description

On cover: rzeźby autorstwa Jacques’a du Broeucqa przedstawiające wyobrażenia cnót: 1 Sprawiedliwość, 2 Roztropność, 3 Umiarkowanie, 4 Męstwo; Collégiale Sainte-Waudru de Mons, Belgia (Wikimedia Commons, domena publiczna).

Publikacja sfinansowana ze środków Dziekana Wydziału Historycznego Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

Licence: None

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Tadeusz Stegner

Secretary Piotr Perkowski

Volume Editor Anna Łysiak‑Łątkowska

Issue content

Wstęp

Anna Łysiak-Łątkowska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 9-15

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.002.18803

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Retraction notice

Tadeusz Stegner

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 16-17

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.001.18799

Gdańsk, October 20, 2023

STUDIA HISTORICA GEDANENSIA

Tadeusz Stegner, Chief Editor

Piotr Perkowski, Managing Editor

Retraction notice

The editors of the journal Studia Historia Gedanensia have made the decision to withdraw the article authored by Jacek Rakoczy, titled ‘Monetary Series PROVINCIA DACIA in Roman Coinage,’ which was originally published in Volume IX of 2018. The article has been identified as containing verbatim content sourced from websites, thus constituting plagiarism.

Information about retracted article:

Rakoczy, J. (2018). Monetary series “PROVINCIA DACIA” in the Roman coinage. Studia Historica Gedanensia, 9, 15–25. https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001hg.18.001.10317

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Cnoty samic w De natura animalium Eliana

Lucyna Kostuch

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 19-33

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.003.18804

In De natura animalium, Aelian describes the animal world in a manner that succumbs to the tendency to anthropomorphize that is rooted in the human mind – a phenomenon currently widely discussed in ethological and cognitive research. The author observes a female animal seeing in her the features of a woman. However, Aelian’s understanding is not superficial. At the same time, he tries to penetrate the perceptual environment of the male of a particular species and look at the female through his eyes. In some cases, the male animal analyzes the behaviour of a female, e.g., his female owner. In Aelian’s work, natural observations overlap with the author’s moral reflections (personal and as a product of his era) creating a set of virtues that could be assigned to the female sex. In the approach proposed by Aelian, these virtues are not always stereotypical, because apart from female virtues that are obvious in ancient culture, there are also less obvious ones: physical strength and courage, independence, speed in action, activity, as well as beauty that is a product of splendour. In De natura animalium, the

traditional catalogue positive features attributed to the female sex seen through the prism of natural observations is modified.

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Eusebia, Elena e l’imperatore romano Giuliano l’Apostata

Anna Pająkowska‑Bouallegui

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 34-49

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.004.18805

The Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus, known to posterity as the Apostate, is an extraordinary figure in the history of the Roman Empire. And although he was Caesar for only five years (355–360), and Emperor for less than two years (361–363), he became famous as a wise and just ruler, a good commander, a brave soldier, and an efficient administrator. He was also a great lover of ancient culture and a talented writer. He left behind many official letters and literary works. His writings provide valuable information both about the Roman state in the fourth century and about himself and his family. He was also one of the best educated Roman rulers, well versed in Greek and Latin literature, philosophy, and history.

Two exceptional women played a particularly important role in the life of Julian the Apostate: his wife Helena and Eusebia, the wife of Emperor Constantius II, his cousin. Both were endowed with many good qualities, which are mentioned not only by Julian the Apostate himself in his writings, but also by other ancient authors, including the historians Ammianus Marcellinus, Eutropius, Zosimos, the rhetorician Libanius, and historians of the Church Socrates Scholasticus and Hermias Sozomen. Both Eusebia and Helena are very interesting figures. But, while about Eusebia there is a great deal of information in various sources, about Helena there are only brief mentions. Nevertheless, both of these empresses are worth closer attention. In my article, written in Italian, I present a picture of the virtues of Helena and Eusebia, as contained in the writings of the Emperor Julian the Apostate himself, as well as other ancient authors.

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Das Bild der tugendhaften Frau als Ehefrau und Mutter in ausgewählten lateinsprachigen Epithalamien und Epitaphien des 16. Jahrhunderts

Agata Chrobot, Jacek Pielas

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 50-69

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.006.18807

In this article, I analyze selected texts of epithalamia and epitaphs, on the basis of which we can conclude that it is no accident that male poets paid so much attention to women in these two genres. This is so because in wedding songs they needed a virtuous wife, and in funeral songs they had to prove that they had found one. In both types of works, the catalogue and the laudatio of female virtues are very similar. The difference is visible in the description of appearance, which in epitaphs is of secondary importance, because the body disintegrates after death, unlike the immortal soul. In the sixth epitaph to Elżbieta Szydłowiecka, Piotr Rojzjusz emphasizes the grace and beauty of the deceased, but puts them between two other virtues: kindness and holiness. All virtue lay at rest in the grave with this beautiful woman. The funeral laudatio coincides with the laudatio in wedding songs. The woman was to be the model of a good wife, a mother, and a Christian. The topos of the good wife required of her: good birth, love for her husband, piety, decency, honesty, modesty, unconditional obedience to her husband, and lack of a quarrelsome disposition (the epitaphs lack pulchra and pecuniosa). The topos of a good mother, however, includes giving birth and raising children. A good mother had to be pious, modest, and caring for her family and children. In each of these roles, the description of virtues is strongly prescriptive. A woman becomes a being programmed by nature and patriarchal society to fulfill the role of an obedient daughter, a virtuous wife, a caring mother, and a good housewife.

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Aktywność polityczna i kulturalna kobiet w świetle rękopiśmiennej i drukowanej prasy polskiego oświecenia (XVIII w.)

Adam Kucharski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 70-96

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.005.18806

The rapid development of the press in the Republic of Poland in the eighteenth century enabled a much more efficient transfer of information. During the Enlightenment, the Polish press market was graced by a number of magazines the editors of which were guided by the goals of reforming, moralizing, and promoting scientific knowledge. At the same time, the old Polish social communication system based on the creation and sending of handwritten newspapers to recipients was still in operation. In various press outlets in the Republic of Poland in the second half of the eighteenth century, one can also find an ever‑growing amount of information devoted to women. In addition to pedagogical issues that were discussed in the Enlightenment, i.e., the upbringing and education of girls, information about women’s activities, which were diverse in their nature, spread more and more widely. Both in printed and handwritten newspapers, one can, above all, read about the achievements of women in the fields of politics and culture. Although Polish women in the eighteenth century had limited opportunities to act in politics and culture, resulting from the specificity of the Polish state system and from the dominance of men, their important role in these areas was often highlighted in the press. Press advertisements also allow us to conclude that literary works written by women could take root in social consciousness thanks to newspaper advertising.

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Wychowanie i edukacja dziewcząt według Les Conversations d’Émilie Louise d’Épinay

Anna Łysiak‑Łątkowska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 97-122

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.008.18809

The article presents the views of Louise d’Épinay on the education of girls against the background of her work, taking into account the particularly unusual case of the Histoire de Madame de Montbrillant. D’Épinay presented her views on the education of girls in Les Conversations d’Émilie, a work written under the influence of having to care for her granddaughter Émilie and written, above all, for her. This is an extraordinary pedagogical work in several respects. It was the only work by d’Épinay that was published under her own name during her lifetime. For most of her life, because of prevalent cultural stereotypes, she was against making her work public. The form of dialogues‑conversations, mother‑daughter conversations, makes up the central axis of Les Conversations, and the content has been adapted to the understanding of a small child. The fundamental premise of d’Épinay’s suggestions was a belief in the intellectual equality of the sexes. The opening of cognitive opportunities for girls in various areas, going beyond traditional women’s activities, created an opportunity to shape their mentality, but also led to discovering and learning about their own autonomy, identity, and female subjectivity. Among cultural conventions and stereotypes about the division of gender roles, d’Épinay, who partly accepted them, found an asylum and a reservoir of mental activity, female independence in the private, personal sphere, determined more by a mental dimension than by real boundaries of space and duties. Les Conversations are brave, pioneering views and reflections by a woman about girls’ education, a bold look at who a woman is at her core.

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Cierpliwa, słodka i skromna. Cnoty niewieście w XIX w. według Klementyny z Tańskich Hoffmanowej i jej Pamiątki po dobrej matce czyli ostatnich jej rad dla córki

Monika Opioła‑Cegiełka

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 123-146

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.009.18810

Klementyna Hoffmanowa (née Tańska) published her handbook Pamiątka po dobrej matce (A Memorial of a Dear Mother) in 1819. This collection of advice for girls and young women was an extremely popular publication and went through ten editions in the nineteenth century. Although the author was an educated woman interested in public affairs, in the Pamiątka she propagated a model of a woman subordinated to a man, fulfilling herself on a private level and, importantly, developing certain qualities to satisfy her family and husband: “My daughter! Do not worry that you belong to the weaker sex; her destiny is beauty: after all, she can be a beloved and useful woman. Nature endowed man with power, because it entrusted him with the defence of the weaker, opposing injustice, the punishment of vice […] God created woman more tender and weaker: she should soothe, soften, and make a brave companion happy” (p. 9, 7th edition). In the Pamiątka we find advice on health, appearance, duties, godliness, but also on the female sex and its qualities. In the second part of the guide, Hoffmanowa devotes chapter three to feminine virtues (“On the Virtues Needed by a Woman,” pp. 75–90); however, advice on the canon of desirable features and values can be found throughout the entire collection. “The virtue proper to our sex is sweetness; rare in a man, it seems impossible for a woman to do without it […] Sweetness is not only a charm, but also a weapon for us” (p. 79, 7th edition). In addition to sweetness, the author draws attention to patience, modesty, and cheerfulness, and in the event of “days of numbness in our lives,” which do not encourage cheerfulness at all, she recommends prayer and beseeching God for new strength. Hoffmanowa’s guidebook is worth looking at in the context of its proposed moral model, both in terms of its substantive richness and the frequency of its reprintings. While the proposed model of a woman might not have been shocking in 1819, its tenth edition in 1883 was in contrast to the developing women’s movements and women’s emancipation.

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„Bądź aniołem piastunem narodowego ducha…” Cnoty niewieście rekomendowane w XIX‑wiecznych poradnikach obyczajowych

Kinga Raińska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 147-176

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.010.18811

Throughout the nineteenth century, Poland was deprived of an independent state, and the primary goal of Poles at that time, regardless of gender, was to regain independence. The specific historical conditions in which Polish society had to modernize in the period under discussion also left their mark on the process of women’s education, which is visible in contemporary curricula. In them, a special aura surrounded moral education and work for the oppressed homeland, in which women were to perform a unique function. The role that the family played in the process of shaping national awareness and defending Polishness against Germanization and Russification assigned to Polish women special tasks in society and additional fields of activity, increasing their prestige in the family and beyond. The situation in which Poles found themselves in the period in question largely influenced the model of educating the young generation of women. In it, moral, religious and patriotic education took a prominent place. In the comfort of the home, in boarding schools, and in schools, girls were supposed to learn the principles of faith, to learn to read and write in Polish, to count, to acquire a knowledge of the main points of geography, native history, and nature, to master the art of playing an instrument, to become familiar with household duties, to learn to sew, embroider and knit, etc. The direction of girls’ education was in a sense imposed by the tasks that the pupils had to fulfill in the future in the life of their family and in the life of society.

An educated woman was to become a defender of Christian faith and wisdom, a guardian of patriotism, a promoter of history, the purity of the Polish language and Polish customs, and above all, a good wife and mother. Moral values, based mainly on Christian ethics, were always to accompany her both in the home and in public. Specific Polish conditions permanently bound her to tradition and to the prevailing ideal of the Polish Mother, a symbolic model of the ideal wife and mother. In the name of the good of the homeland and in support of a man in the struggle for freedom, she was to renounce her own aspirations and desires, so that nothing distracted from the main goal – Poland’s regaining independence.

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Od dobrej pani do apostołki kultury. Ewolucja postaw polskich ziemianek kresowych wobec ludności wiejskiej w XIX w.

Maria Korybut‑Marciniak

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 177-195

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.011.18812

During the nineteenth century, the personal model of a Borderlands female landownerwas transformed as a result of changes that were economic (enfranchisement), socio‑cultural, and political. The Polish manor house within the Stolen Lands in the nineteenth century became a stronghold of Polish culture, Catholicism, and patriotism, effectively protecting its inhabitants against Russification. Throughout the nineteenth century, the role of the landowner’s manor house remained unchanged, but the relations between the manor and the common people were transformed. Female inhabitants of manors in the first half of the nineteenth century played the role of the “good mistress.” They took care of their subjects, organized refreshments during the holiday season, acted as philanthropists, founders of almshouses, and suppliers of “manor pharmacies.” This pattern began to change in the post‑enfranchisement era. At the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, Polish female landowners became the organizers of secret folk schools, initiated vocational courses, nurseries, and rural theatre and singing clubs. More and more educated women from the Borderlands became involved in social activities for the benefit of the countryside. In this article, I show the evolution of “female virtues” through the prism of relations between the manor house and the local

community. The sources for the text are Borderland memoirs, educational publications, and surviving correspondence.

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Wielkopolskie „entuzjastki” – Bibianna Moraczewska i Emilia Sczaniecka. Życie złożone w służbie Ojczyzny – świadomy wybór czy zrządzenie losu?

Grażyna Wyder

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 196-204

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.012.18813

Women of Greater Poland in the nineteenth century – outstanding Polish women: Bibianna Moraczewska (1811–1887) and Emilia Sczaniecka (1804–1896) – can be considered the first Polish suffragettes. They devoted their entire lives to national, social, and political activities. They actively participated in Polish national uprisings. They took part in the independence movement’s underground activities. They were known and respected in wide social circles, often actively collaborating in social and national projects.

They treated their activities as a duty towards the enslaved homeland.

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Cnotliwe Słowianki i knujące Niemki. Wzorzec dobrej żony i jej antyniemiecki kontekst w powieści historycznej Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego

Sebastian Harasimiuk

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 205-214

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.013.18814

Emnilda, the third wife of King Bolesław Chrobry, is presented in the work of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski as a woman who manifests in an exemplary fashion a set of character traits that are summed up by the expression “women’s virtues.” This article shows how the heroine of the novel implements this specific system of values. This takes place not only through her personal deeds, but is also highlighted thanks to the counter‑model of Chrobry’s next wife, Oda Meissen.

In Kraszewski’s approach, an interesting national context related to “women’s virtues” emerges. This pattern, based on Catholic values, is used by the writer to idealize the image of the Polish nation and its past, and, at the same time, to diminish the German nation, to show it as morally inferior. This is an obvious commentary on the attempts at Germanization then being undertaken by the Prussian government.

The concept of medievalism is used in the article, as the action of the novel takes place in the medieval era. This period has been referred to many times in similar types of narratives, because this era was considered the period of the creation of the Polish nation. It also underlines the alleged eternity of the Polish‑German or Slavic‑Germanic conflict. In addition, the construction of Emnilda’s character is inspired by the thirteenth‑century lives of the holy princesses of the Piast dynasty.

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Victorian Courtship – from Ideal to Real. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine and the Rules of Etiquette

Iwona Sakowicz

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 215-227

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.014.18815

The Victorian era in Britain was characterized by an emphasis on “respectability” which formed a part of the domesticity ideology that treated the home as a place created for women. Proper, respectable behaviour was a function of belonging to the middle class. A significant number of savoir‑vivre guides published contemporaneously informed the reader not only about receiving guests but also about courtship and marriage. The subject of the article is a close reading of these etiquette guides and the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine letter section, which frequently addresses issues of courtship and marriage. The analysis of the texts using rigid gender roles as presented in the guides and the comparison of them with the letter section of the magazine shows that young readers expressed their independence and assertiveness in trying to contest these rules.

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Ernestyna Potowska‑Rose i Maria Zakrzewska – nieznane liderki ruchu na rzecz praw kobiet

Piotr Derengowski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 228-241

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.015.18816

Although the beginnings of the feminist movement in the United States are widely known, few of us are aware of how important a role two Polish women played in it. It is also surprising that the activities of both women have so far been a subject of interest to foreign rather than Polish researchers. The aim of this article is, therefore, to familiarize the Polish reader with the profiles of both Ernestyna Potowska‑Rose (1810–1892) and Maria Zakrzewska (1829–1902).

The story of Ernestyna Potowska‑Rose is an extremely fascinating one. Suffice it to say that she went to the United States to co‑create an Owenite commune, and soon became one of the leading figures of both abolition and feminist movements.

Also, in the nineteenth century, the second heroine of this article became a symbol for women who decided to cross the traditional boundaries set for the sexes. Together with Elizabeth Blackwell, eight years her senior, and Mary Putnam Jacobi, who was thirteen years her junior, she is considered one of the leading figures within the first generation of female physicians in the United States.

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Wives, Mothers, Female Warriors. The Image of Polish Women in Nineteenth Century American Historiography

Barbara Klassa

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 242-262

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.016.18817

The author analyzes selected American historical narratives published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and describes the image of Polish women presented in them. Women were not usually visible in the historiography of this period, and in fact, they are rarely mentioned, but if they are mentioned, it is mainly as rather inactive wives and/or mothers. In Polish history, however, there were important exceptions, such as Dobrawa and Jadwiga Andegawenska or, to a lesser extent, Bona Sforza and Marysieńka Sobieska. Other queens are mentioned rather rarely, and only exceptionally do women from outside the ruling families appear, which is something that applies even to aristocratic women. It is these very rare mentions of Polish women that are taken into consideration even if they are usually mentioned in single publications.

In addition, detailed research is presented to isolate certain statements about Polish women in general and their character and virtues. These statements are relatively few in number, but they are occasionally included especially when they describe customs. These elements serve as the basis for analyzing the overall image of Polish women in American historiography with a particular emphasis on the process of its historical modification.

Moreover, the author also includes elements of comparison between descriptions of Polish women and those of women from other countries and nations with the aim of identifying any possible similarities and/or differences with regard to the Polish national (feminine) character and the national (feminine) set of virtues.

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Ewolucja wzorca kobiety idealnej we Francji belle époque. Przypadek Marguerite Durand i La Fronde

Małgorzata Nossowska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 263-280

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.017.18818

Although the nineteenth century, in many respects, changed France beyond recognition, with the Civil Code of 1802, it created a legal framework as strong as never before that enclosed women in a world of strictly defined roles and tasks. They were a reflection and legal sanction of the attitudes, understanding of social roles, and necessary attributes allocated to women, that were currently in operation, especially in the bourgeois French society. Any change in them took place extremely slowly, and met with resistance and considerable social reluctance. Suffice it to say, that French women did not gain full civil rights until 1938. Among the activists of women’s movements in France who provoked these changes and actively supported them, promoting new kinds of attitudes and behaviour was Marguerite Durand (1864–1936), feminist, journalist, founder and editor‑in‑chief of the daily (and later monthly) La Fronde, the first newspaper in France run by a woman and employing only women, although it did not only cover women’s issues. La Fronde became an important tribune promoting issues important for women, an advocate of legal changes, but, above all, of changes in the social perception of women, their image, their roles and tasks, their expected and required features, behaviour, and attitudes. And although this change was slow, La Fronde was one of its most important tools, and Marguerite Durand one of its faces.

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Ewa z Rościszewskich Lorentowiczowa (1869–1943)

Krystyna Berkan

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 281-311

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.018.18819

This article discusses the life and work of Ewa Rościszewska‑Lorentowiczowa, painter and book‑binder, and her relationship with her daughter, painter and stage‑designer Irena Lorentowicz. Rościszewska came from a traditional, gentry family, impoverished after the January Uprising. Although initially, like many girls in her world, she was meant to become a governess or teacher, she decided to take up an artistic training. She studied painting in Warsaw and Paris. At the same time, she started to work as a book‑binder. She did not give up her artistic career after her marriage to the celebrated writer Jan Lorentowicz (1903) or after the birth of her daughter (1904). I analyze the creative personality of Rościszewska‑Lorentowicz, her oeuvre as well as texts relating to her, especially those pertaining to family life. In the biographies of women artists, there is often information about the negative influence of the subject’s mother. If the artists themselves became mothers, they have been seen as cold, neurotic, putting art and their own careers first, to the detriment of children. The relationship between Ewa Rościszewska‑Lorentowicz and Irena Lorentowicz has been described in this way. I point out the stereotypical nature of these beliefs and the much more complex nature of the relationship between the two artists, mother and daughter.

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„Służyć Bogu, Ojczyźnie i Rodzinie”. Kobiety w faszystowskich Włoszech (1925–1940)

Leszek Molendowski

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 312-340

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.019.18820

The article focuses on characterizing the ideological assumptions and policies of the fascist movement toward women, and, after 1922, those of the state governed by the National Fascist Party (PNF) and, above all, by Benito Mussolini. Women’s equality, among other things, was established in the initial period of fascism when its left wing was strong. Gradually over time as the movement came to power and especially after taking it in 1922, Il Duce and the party embraced conservative, nationalist social and economic policies that referred to the great Roman past in a desire to reconstruct the empire and increase the number of Italian citizens that would be newly formed Italian fascists. To achieve this goal, especially after 1925 when the totalitarian state and society was being built, the regime pursued a policy of the total control and subordination of women to the state and the system. Divorce, abortion, and the sale of contraceptives were banned, the “excessive education” of girls and the possibility of woman undertaking professional work were limited, while the roles of women in society as mothers, wives, and guardians of the “home” were promoted.

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Woman, Mother, Polish Woman. The Evolution of Attitudes of Polish Women in Sweden 1945–1989 from the Emigrant Perspective

Arnold Kłonczyński

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 341-355

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.020.18821

Polish emigrant communities scattered around the world have been usually dominated by men. The Polish diaspora in Sweden was exceptional, for in the years 1945–1989 the majority was made up of women. In 1945, they constituted 90% of the community. The next four waves of emigration resulted in an influx of women who tried to define their role in a new reality of emigration. The high number of women in the Polish immigrant community continued and in 1980 they constituted 62% of this community. The clash with new economic conditions, sometimes social declassing, resulted in the redefinition of female‑ness, a reconstruction of the way of evaluating one’s role in the family and the émigré community, expressed in specific attitudes towards the challenges that each day brought.

The aim of the article is to attempt to answer the question as to how the representatives of the various Polish waves of emigration to Sweden related to the characteristics that were supposed to be exhibited by Polish women in emigration and the tasks that resulted from the values adopted and cultivated. Drawing on an analysis of memoirs, journalistic materials published in the émigré Polish press in Sweden, and archival documents, I note that Polish women living in exile in Sweden continued their education and quickly took up work, thanks to which they did not create closed environments. Even the women who came from concentration camps in 1945 and decided to live permanently in Sweden, had to cope quickly with war trauma. They got married, started families and, to a lesser extent, participated in the national life of the Polish diaspora. Those women who were wives of émigré activists or were strongly connected with the Polish government‑in‑exile undertook various actions related to preserving Polish culture, established schools for children, organized celebrations of various holidays, etc. Each representative of successive waves of emigration acted in a similar way. Often the need to build a material existence in a new country was more important than participation in the life of the Polish community, which in any case was not attractive to them. Family ties were most important, because they strengthened all family members during the difficult period of acclimatization in the new environment. They were involved in crisis situations, for example, by organizing charity aid in periods when strikes broke out in Poland. Polish women in exile were strongly influenced by their Swedish environment and, if possible, took up professional careers. They were

often more independent than women living in Poland. Polish women in exile in Sweden represented very different values. This was due to the reasons for emigration and the period in which they left for Sweden and started a new life there, but they often tried to cultivate patriotic values, which involved raising children in an atmosphere of Polish culture and tradition, and, through charity events, helping those who stayed in Poland and needed aid.

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“Improperly” Feminine: A Case Study in American Female Convicts Awaiting Execution, 1981–2019

Anna Podciborska

Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol. 14 (2023), 2023, pp. 356-375

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.23.021.18822

Women who are sentenced to death are often defeminized and dehumanized by prosecutors and the media. One of the factors influencing the severity of the punishment received is the assessment of the degree of femininity portrayed by the accused. These women are judged based on social and gender norms, stereotypes surrounding the role of women and femininity, their ability to fit into the “natural” primary social identity as mothers, and even homicidal gender norms. In cases of female filicide, the defendants often fall into three narrative identities constructed by defense attorneys, prosecutors, the media, and the public – “bad,” “mad,” or “sad” women. Those who have been sentenced to death are eventually labelled as “bad,” that is, extremely deviant from “proper” femininity. Although the “mad” and “sad” identity creations, if successful, might earn some leniency in sentencing, they still perpetuate harmful stereotypes that affect all women. The article presents an overview of 52 cases of women who received the death penalty from 1981 to 2019 in the United States. These women are perceived as “improperly” feminine.

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Słowa kluczowe: De natura animalium, female, ancient virtues, Julian the Apostate, Helena, Eusebia, the Constantine dynasty, the Roman Empire in the fourth century, woman, virtue, epithalamium, epitaph, politics, culture, eighteenth‑century Poland, women, printed press, manuscript newspapers, Louise d’Épinay, Les Conversations d’Émilie, the raising and education of girls in the eighteenth century, motherhood, Klementyna z Tańskich Hoffmanowa, female virtues, handbook, women’s upbringing in the nineteenth century, women’s education, nineteenth century, handbooks, religious and patriotic education, women’s history, the Kresy (Eastern Borderlands), landowners, manor–village relations, secret teaching, enthusiast and suffragette, The Grand Duchy of Posen, social and independence activists, The Society for Scientific Help for Girls in Poznań, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Bolesław Chrobry, gender, medievalism, historical novel, flirt, courtship, victorian, etiquette guides, Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, Ernestine Potowski‑Rose, Marie Zakrzewska, abolitionism, feminism, medicine, Polish women in American historiography, nineteenth century, Julia Swift Orvis, Luther Calvin Saxton, Louis Edwin van Norman, Nevin Owen Winter, belle époque, French women’s emancipation, Marguerite Durand, La Fronde, Irena Lorentowicz, Ewa Lorentowicz, Jan Lorentowicz, book‑binding, artistic craft, fascism, women, Claretta Petacci, Margharita Sarfatti, Elisa Majer Rizzoli, Achille Starace, National Institute for the Protection of Maternity and Childhood, Polish emigration after 1945, femininity and defeminized, female offenders and female inmates, death penalty and death row, capital punishment, gender norms and gender stereotypes, motherhood

Vol. 14 (2023)

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2023