Gender Democracy

As part of the herstoric celebrations of the centenary of Polish independence aiming primarily to restore the remembrance of native suffragettes who fought in the Polish independence movement at the turn of the 20th century for the establishment of full legal and social equality between men and women, hundreds of cultural, educational and political events are currently taking place across the country. One of them is HERSTORIADA, a series of Congress Meetings with Herstory in the form of a touring herstoric academy by the Women's Congress. 

This year is exceptional for Poland when it comes to celebrating historical memory. Multiple anniversaries awaiting us in 2018 provide ample opportunity to reflect on the contemporary meanings of all those diverse, laudable and difficult events from the modern history of Poland, that is, the centenary of end of World War I and the regaining of the Polish state’s independence in 1918, the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and fiftieth anniversary of the communist regime’s antisemitic campaign against the student revolt of 1968.

On the weekend of June 16th–17th 2018 in the city of Łódź, the 10th Women’s Congress took place under the main slogan “We Want It All – our Life and our Rights!”. For many years now, the Heinrich Böll Foundation has been one of the Congress’ main partners, so we couldn’t miss out on this one as well. This time, we were keen to offer a discussion that would combine the question of women rights and ecological issues.

As the examples of Poland and Germany show, European efforts to support progress in the field of gender equality policies should rather not overtly emphasize existing differences, but help to find ways to supplement each other. Whereas the look through the – often judgemental – prism of differences is often reproducing detrimental stereotypes, the search for possibilities of cooperation, exchange of best practices and mutual inspiration has the potential to create an upward dynamic on all sides.  

Implementing sustainable development is partially the art of overcoming false juxtapositions. It would be a gross mistake to approach (and discard) challenges related to saving our planet and creating just societies with equal rights for all in the Brechtian perspective of “Food is the first thing, morals follow on”.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw and as part of qualitative pilot studies on cyber-violence from the female perspective, has decided to encourage preventive action.