The Principle of Gender Equality in Employment: Historical Development During the Period of Soviet-type Dictatorship in Poland

Abstract

This article discusses the historical development of the principle of gender equality in employment and the situation of women in the labour market in Poland under the Soviet-type totalitarian regime. The equality of men and women in employment was declaratively one of the most important ideas in the new state after the war; however, according to the period and party leadership, the equality of men and women in employment was implemented to a different degree, and by different legal instruments. On this ground, the author analyses the legal history of the development of the principle of gender equality during three periods of People’s Poland – the period of Stalinism and the Six-year plan (1948–1955), the post-1956 “thaw” period and the last two decades of the People’s Republic of Poland. The analysis of labour legislation and social policy of the time was extended by an analysis of propaganda and media material, and by detailed observations of the sociological nature of the actual situation of women in society and employment at that time.