V. V. Pasynkova

Woman in Opposition: Female Images of Poland's Solidarity (1980-1981)

Published in: Gender & Political Parties. Almaty: Institute for Development of Kazakhstan. 2004.

 Gender transformations of the modern Polish society were conditioned not only by the influence of structural factors of  the development of Central and Eastern regions of Europe, but also by the specific character of the development of the individual agents of political and social transformation. In the case of Poland it was Solidarity that appeared to be such an agent: it was a mass oppositional organization whose leaders came to power owing to the democratic transition of the1980-1990s. There is a supposition that gender transformations of Poland's society in the direction of patriarchy, which led to the exclusion of women from the public sphere (Pine2002) and the culmination of which became passing of the Law on abolition of abortions in 1993, were caused not only by a purposeful gender policy of the Polish government, but it was also a result of realization of traditional ideas about male and female destination; the bearers of these ideas were the representatives of the Polish Catholic Church and some leaders of Solidarity. For all this the ideology of Solidarity was identified in the mass consciousness of the Polish society  with the Catholic ethics as opposed to the socialistic ideas and notions. Accordingly,  the opposition of Solidarity was interpreted as an appeal to a Catholic tradition owing to the close link of Solidarity with the Polish Catholic Church since the times of the Polish People's Republic(PPR), and to later gender policy, the policy that differed people on the basis of gender, and which was guided under the direct leadership of the former leaders of Solidarity

 The ideology of Solidarity started to form in 1980-1981. This period is known to be the highest point of the development of the organization. Solidarity of that period positioned itself as an opposition force claiming the role of the transformation agent of the Communist regime of the PPR, but it failed to take advantage of traditional means of political struggle, since it had been expelled from the political area. Competition with the Сomunist ideology was concentrated on the areas which were the least touched upon by socialistic transformations: religion and partly culture. Accordingly, religious and cultural representations among which gender representations took the central part, became for Solidarity the main way of expressing its opposition. Thanks to close collaboration of Solidarity authorities with the Church during 1980-1981 Solidarity was perceived to be a bearer and a conductor of traditional Catholic ideas of social and gender order that completely resisted socialism as a model of society (Tischner 1984).Let's assume that Solidarity expressed its opposition not only through resistance of socialistic values but also through criticism of them and partial borrowing since: 1) Solidarity worked in the socialist society, 2) the ideology of opposition could not be expressed through the direct political struggle but was expressed through establishing  the system of representations legitimating the position of Solidarity both in the socialistic state and the socialistic society. This assumption can be examined by means of analysis of the process of reconstruction of gender images ( female images specifically) in the ideology of Solidarity as a system of representations on the basis of their apportionment on the materials of biographies, interviews, and the conducted researches.

 This article considers the transformation of the so-called official image of the female- citizen of the socialistic state-the PPR-in the process of formation and activity of the opposition to the socialistic regime which was headed by the independent trade union Solidarity. Firstly, the characteristic of the image of a socialistic woman, which was reproduced by the official ideology of the PPR, will be featured. Secondly, we will conduct the gender analysis of some official documents of Solidarity. Thirdly, we will refer to the description of practices of women's participation in the activities of Solidarity. Fourthly, we will finally define and characterize the gender ( in our case female) images that had been constructed in the process of the Polish opposition activity. In conclusion we will infer a compromising character of the opposition ideology of Solidarity.

 A Worker, a Citizen, a Mother.

 The gender policy of the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) in socialistic Poland led to the formation in mass consciousness and its reproduction in the official ideology of the female image that included  three main roles: a worker, a citizen, and a mother (Zajicek, Calasanti 1998, Kenney 1999). Let's consider how the consolidation and reproduction of the triple image of a Polish female citizen was formed.

 The officially proclaimed and encouraged access of women to economical and political spheres was accomplished by obscure in rhetoric, but obvious in practice limitation of women's access to high authoritative positions ( Graham. Regulska 1997:67) According to the data produced by M. Fushara, by 1980 women constituted 46 % of labor resources of the PPR, and out of it no more than 28% had high positions in the so-called female branches. Such branches as financial and social insurance(84%), health and social security services(80%), education (76%),and trade (82%) were referred to female branches (Fuszara 1994: 133). Mass media of the PPR besides declaring the images of women-workers, in industry, also constructed in the citizens' consciousness women's affiliation to the definite branches: in the socialistic production - textile and chemical branches, in the social spheres- trade and education (Zycie Warsawy 1980; 23 wresnia; 19 listopada; 4 grudnia). By 1980 the prevailing majority of Polish women (about 84%) worked outside homes, which allowed the mass media characterize them as working women (kobieta pracujaca) (Zycie Waesawy 1981: 7-8 marca).Women's participation in the socialistic production was regulated by means of creating new working places, defining the structure of payment, establishing social services to support working women , including the system of educational institutions for children, and providing opportunities for women to get education (Siemienska 1994: 612). Thus the gender policy of the PUWP ensured the realization of the worker's role by women.

 Political activity of women was controlled by women's political organizations which had the direct links with the PUWP (Einhorn 1993: 174). There were three such organizations-mediators: the Women's League, the Rural Women's Clubs and the Association of Women-Cooperative-Members. Among them the League of Women, founded in 1945 (Siemienska 1994: 615) was on the leading position. The main goal of the League of Women was fulfillment of the tasks, put by the Communist Party. The League also declared its intention to protect women's rights at their workplace and at educational institutions, and also to help women in solving their routine life problems. The intercommunication with the PUWP was displayed in the program of the League of Women adopted at the conference in 1951 - all its theses were worked out on the basis of taking into account the political course of the PUWP and the slogans presented in the official ideology. (Fuszara 1994:132) The PUWP used the League of Women as a conductor with the help of which it constructed a new vision of woman as a politically active citizen taking part in the conferences of the League of Women and the PUWP (Zycie Warsawy 1981: 22stycznia).

 Women's participation in the political life of the PUWP  came out of her citizen role. The elusion of such participation was created owing to the introduction of quotas to the parliament: till 1989 women in the parliament constituted only 20%. Women were included in the Seim and the Central Committee ( CC ) of the PUWP in accordance with the ideological principle of representation in governmental bodies of different social groups (Kenney 1999: 412). In M. Matyni's opinion, a female politician in the PPR as " a representative of Polish women" in the Seim and on the leading posts served as an embodiment of the gender equality policy held by the PUWP (Matynia 1994: 355 ). In practice  the political activity of women was transformed into the social activity - their participation in the League of Women, in trade unions and in other organizations  didn't have any political significance, since all these organizations submitted to the PUWP. But women's participation in politics was represented to be rather active - mass media regularly published information about women's activities in the League and about their leaders' work at the plenary meetings of the CC and conferences of the PUWP; this was aimed at creating of the image of an active  female citizen of the PPR.

 A traditional Polish woman's role of a mother was never rejected totally by the PUWP ideology - in the course of development of socialistic Poland it was given either less or more significance compared to the roles of a worker and a citizen. Since 1944 the state started to hold active interference in the private sphere involving women into the production. The limitation of the Church's influence and the adoption of the law on abolition of abortions  led to breaking down the traditional ideas of the women's role of a mother in the family(Ramet 1998). Slogans calling women to return to their destination -the maternity with possible refusal from participation in the socialistic production were very popular during E. Gerec' being in power(1970-1980). The influence of the traditional ideas of women was expressed in identifying the family and family values with a female image; a woman was seen to be the basis of the development of the family(Taras 1984% 249). At the same time there was no rejection from  the images of working and politically active women. Thus a mixed, "official" image of the woman as an object of the gender policy of the PUWP, combining the three roles: a worker, a citizen and a mother, was being created.

 Woman as an Object of the Social Policy of Solidarity.

 The program documents of Solidarity testify to the admission of the model of an"official" female image in the capacity of the basic model. The status of a woman as a Polish citizen, combining mother duties with work found its reflection in the program documents of Solidarity. Considering women to be an object of the socialistic policy of the state, since they combined family duties and work, brought together gender aspects of the ideology of Solidarity with basic principles of the gender policy of the PUWP.

 One of the first documents of Solidarity containing some ideas about the status of Polish women was a well-known Gdansk Agreement on twenty one requirements of Polish workers of the Gdansk seacoast. Twenty one points of requirements contained items 17 and 18 which pointed at the intention of the future members of Solidarity to pay special attention to women, regarding them as a social group requiring specific treatment connected with their realization of maternity functions (Zicie Waesawy 1980: 2 wrzesnia). A woman in accordance with the PUWP's slogans was defined as a "working mother". Solidarity demanded to provide children of working mothers with the necessary number of places in kindergartens. Besides there was a demand to introduce a three-year maternity leave to women who gave a birth to a child. Thus the opposition to the existing gender order was expressed in the vision of a woman as a mother who was attracted by the state to work, but the state did not provide a woman with a normal maternity opportunity.

 The program of Solidarity developed these requirements regarding women; women were considered to be a group of working people whose rights, as well as the rights of other workers, were systematically violated.  But the privileges, which were to be given to all women, were mostly given to mothers i.e. they were originated from traditional ideas of the biological function  of women. Thus, in the chapter about the protection of social and labor rights of citizens, the necessity to create working places for pregnant women was specifically  underlined(Program of Solidarity1986: 130) It is characteristic that the main requirements of women's rights were included in the chapter for the protection of the family rights: abolition of the night work for women, introduction of the flexible work schedule, and part-time work for pregnant women, introduction of an additional maternity leave were supposed to be necessary conditions for normal functioning of the family (Ibid.: 131) the requirement of the Gdansk Agreement for introducing a three-year maternity leave was modified - the leave was supposed to be given to all mothers regardless of their employment. Thus, their labor activity was placed on the same footing with maternity: a woman's realization of her maternity functions for supporting her family existence was greatly encouraged. The increase of family grant allowance, construction of kindergartens, consulting centers and district organizations on the family advancement were to contribute to the development of the family.(Ibid.: 131) - a woman was considered to be an embodiment of the family. The program of Solidarity, regarding  maternity supported by government as a necessary condition for biological reproduction of the nation, was closely linked with the slogans of the PUWP of the 1970-1980s. Taking into account that along with the image of a " not-working mother" Solidarity also presented the image of a "working mother" which was close to the image of a "socialistic woman" we can conclude that the status of women in the program documents of Solidarity was to a great extent influenced by the "official" image.

 Women's Participation in Solidarity.

Solidarity considered women to be the object of family policy, and its program documents constructed the image of a not-working or a working mother. But the experiences of women's participation of women in Solidarity showed other images, which can be reconstructed by means of the analysis of the biographies and interviews of the participants and leaders of Solidarity.

 Solidarity admitted active participation of Polish women in their activities, but at the same time it limited the boundaries of their participation. Thus despite the fact that women constituted approximately half members of Solidarity their participation at high levels of the organization was rather seldom. There were two women who were the members of the Gdansk Presidium of Solidarity in the 1980-1981s :Anna Valentinovich and Alina Penkovska; regional organizations were headed mostly by men despite the fact that a considerable part of work on functioning of individual organizations was performed by women (Long 1996: 168).

 The principal part of political and other decisions was made without women's participation, engaged in Solidarity activity. Unlike official principle of women's representation in the government bodies, Solidarity did not recognize women as potential politicians. The only exception from this was Alina Penkovska who headed the Medical section of the trade union and who held the negotiations with the government on the reforms in health care(Zycie Warsawy 1980: pazdziernika; 1981 26 stycznia). But in the Presidium of Solidarity Alina Penkovska had to perform what the leaders thought to be "women's duties" while their meetings: fix coffee and serve tea(Long 1996: 168).

 The strikes organized by Solidarity also divided roles according to the gender at the lowest level of the functioning of the organization, but they tolerated some exceptions. According to reminiscences of the strike participants in the summer of 1980, the strike committees- the future bodies of Solidarity - permitted and even strongly recommended to women workers to leave their work places after the end of the work shift(Szuta 1982: 230). The struggle for realization of political rights in the course of the strikes in the summer of 1980 was considered to be a male role. One of the slogans of the strike at the Gdansk shipyard expressed the intention of men to exclude women from the national struggle: "Women! Don't disturb us ! We are fighting for Poland!" (quoted in Kenney 1999: 400). According to reminiscences of the strike participants the decrees of the strike committees produced privileges to women - they could unlike men to leave their work after finishing their work  during the strike: "the strike committee decided that women can go home after finishing the working shift" (Szuta 1982:230); "I suggested that the communiqué allow all women, including the unmarried, to go home" (Shylak 11982: 295).

 Men stayed at work for indefinite time "We proclaimed a "sitting" strike; all men were to stay at the shipyard until something  was cleared up and women could go home after eight hours of their work shift ".(Kaszuba 1982: 280) Arrangement of a daily round of the strikers, who spent days and nights at their work places, was considered to be the task of the secondary importance which was solved by their families: "Our wives, mothers and sisters came to the gates. They brought us food and mattresses".(Shylak 1982: 296). The gates of the factories came to be symbolic boundaries dividing men and women: "Women from our factory were standing on the other side of the gates. They gave us their breakfasts and with tears in their eyes and asked if we needed anything else… these were the women with whom we worked together and I felt uncomfortable… We all used to be one big family, and now we were separated by the gates" (Kuczma 1982: 259). Even behind the gates women  strictly observed the rules of distribution of the roles during the strike: "I saw my father waiting for me near the gates…My mother and sister were standing at some distance. They brought me some food and waited until we finished discussing our problems with Dad. He brought the list of demands from his factory"(Szuta 1982: 234). Those women who remained at their work places were busy cooking food and arranging a daily round of the strikers, i.e. they performed the secondary parts (Kuczma 1982: 259).

 The workers' wives were, as rule, out of the strike activities of their husbands either staying at home or providing food for their husbands. That was a very symbolic image of a woman -mother, wife, sister - at the gate of the factory waiting for the moment of giving their baskets with sandwiches: the moment when they could tell their men the latest home news: " Our wives and other members of the family brought us food, news from home and words of support" 9Gaida 1982: 243). Women's admiration by their husbands who where national heroes for them promoted men's persistency to continue the strikes (Kuczma 1982: 270). Thus women's roles in the strikes were presented as secondary, women provided the daily round needs of men and inspired them.

 As a rule, whenever women tried to be active, they were  apprehended negatively: "They often did not understand the reality of the state of things, and their activities only bothered us. they misinterpreted our actions, contradicted our demands and did not try to understand us" (Kaszuba 1982: 286). Nevertheless during the strikes not only were some women allowed to take part in the strikes together with men, but they took leading positions as well. For instance , " one of the young women, who had got instructions how to organize strikes, from the Gdansk shipyard, was selected to be one of the representatives of the factories"(Szylak 1982: 294).This woman was the bearer of the ideas of the future leaders of Solidarity and it approved of her participation in the strike.

 The most prominent strike participants were women who were directly organizing them. Henrica Kscivonos, a bus-driver, headed the strike of the public transport drivers. Her slogan "If you leave us we will lose!" (quoted in Goodwin 1991: 163 ) was repeatedly used by the ideologists of Solidarity as an appeal to strikes. As a rule, women who headed strikes were members of the opposition groups. Alina Penkovska, a nurse at one of the striking enterprises, and Anna Valentinovich, a crane-driver from the Gdansk shipyard, were members of the so-called free trade unions; they were included in the membership of the Gdansk inter-factory strike committee that was a coordinating center of the strike activities of workers. Anna Valentinovich and Eva Osovska, a member of the illegal opposition organization "Young Poland", accompanied Lech Walesa when he visited the Gdansk shipyard for the first time; according to the comments of the Solidarity press Lech Walesa embodied the Struggle of workers supported by Justice in the person of Anna Valentinovich, who was a respected worker, and by Youth in the person of Eva Osovska ( Ash 1991: 45).  Thus, through the experiences of participation of women in the strikes, they had become the symbol of the revolutionary struggle, which led to the creating of the image of a revolutionary woman within the oppositional ideology of Solidarity.

 A Revolutionary Woman.

 We will scrutinize the way of forming of a revolutionary  woman's image on Anna Valentinovich 's biography. Her life corresponded to the official notions of a Polish woman as a working woman and a social activist: a single mother who devoted her life to her work at the industrial enterprise - the Gdansk shipyard; she was an active member of the League of Women (talk with Anna Valentinovich,1981). But her anticommunist activity and her active participation in the Solidarity leadership led to the transformation of the official image of a"socialistic" woman.

 The oppositional activity of Anna Valentinovich started after her husband's death and her son' s leave to the military service in the army. "My husband died in October and my son left for the army. The funeral was on the 10^th of October and my son left on the 25^th, so I was all by myself. What should I be afraid of since I was alone?" We can assume that the loss of the family and the crisis of the maternal identity were some of the reasons of her active participation in the opposition. Performances against the individual cases of injustice attitude to workers ("I was well aware of the fact that I would not be able to struggle by myself against big  injustice, so I started with small cases ". ( Ibid.: 186) brought Anna  Valentinovich to the alternative to the official trade unions organizations protecting workers' rights - free trade unions (Starski 1982: 237). "Two years ago I learned about the free trade unions for the first time. I did not know what it was, but I thought that if we had such true trade unions we would not be so unprotected to face tyranny and meanness. I started to look for people who were able to explain all these things to me (talk with Anna Valetinovich 1981: 188-189). Anna's activity in the free trade unions caused her dismissal from the shipyard. From the moment of her dismissal from the Gdansk shipyard, which was in its turn used as a reason for the famous August strike, Anna Valentinovich had become one of the leaders of the future Solidarity. Being the member of the Gdansk inter-factory strike committee she took part in signing famous twenty one points of the agreement with the government on organization of the free trade unions (Zycie Waesawy. 1980. 2 wrzesnia ). So the formation of the image of a revolutionary woman was conducted under the influence of the image of an active socialistic woman.

 The revolutionary woman's image consisted of the following components. Firstly it was contradiction to the traditional image of a mother. As Long notifies, in the interview Anna spoke about herself to be a professional worker and seldom did she mention any family problems (Long 1996: 140). Nevertheless, the influence of the traditional image is traced in the fact that for young Solidarity members Anna symbolized the "mother of Polish workers", who was an elderly woman having the boundless confidence of workers: that helped her to become an unofficial spiritual leader of the Gdansk strike (Biezenski 1996: 275).

 Secondly, it was a symbolic component. Anna Valentinovich was often attributed to the rank of the "veteran of strikes" of the 1970 and the symbol of the strike in Gdansk (Mason 1989: 46-47). In the famous Andjei Vaida's film "The Iron Man " Anna Valentinovich played the role of herself(Zycie Warsawy1981: 19 lutego) which testified her being attributed as "a living symbol".

 Thus the image of a revolutionary woman in ideology of Solidarity was constructed by the combination of socialistic traditions and ideas of maternity as the basic destination of women with an absolute predominance of socialistic traditions. The influence of the socialistic image conditioned  such a characteristic feature of the image of a revolutionary woman as her independence in taking decisions and actions in the struggle for the rights of workers; so  it was difficult to identify the image of a revolutionary woman with another female image of Solidarity, which embodied a faithful comrade-in-arms woman submitted to a man.

Comrade in Arms.

 The majority of women taking active part in Solidarity, especially during the periods of the illegal existence of the opposition, could be called comrades-in-arms. The principal trait that differed the image of a revolutionary woman from the image of a comrade-in-arms was their dependence on men in taking decisions and fulfilling them. It was characteristic for comrades-n-arms to admit the primary status of men in their oppositional activity and to take  the secondary parts upon themselves. The leaders of Solidarity noted: "Women usually get into conspiracy not because of their convictions, but through their beloved men… But except those women, who were attracted into opposition by men, there were others who acted independently."(Illegals 1987: 185). A comrade-in arms as a rule came to the opositional activity through men and it was to a great extent caused by a romantic halo of a revolutionary man: "We often moved from one flat to another and we noticed that landladies loved us passionately and were ready to belong to any of us .. Your beloved is devoted to you, is ready to sacrifice to you, respects you, and you trust her… (Illegals 1987: 185). " A girl looks at "her conspiracy" with delight and he quickly makes use of it since it is the only warmth he can find"( Ibid: 164).

 We will consider how the image of a revolutionary woman was created on the example of Grazhina Kuroneva, the wife of Yazek Kuron, who was the leading ideologist of Solidarity. Yazek Kuron considered his wife to be his life mate stressing the romantic character of their relations:" It was me who devised her a name Gaya - and my real life started together with  her. We did everything together. I was her insanity, she was my common sense …And do you think that you will love me if I cut your wings? And will you love me if I do not have wings?"(Gutovska-Adamchik 2001: 30). To have a husband-oppositionist in socialistic Poland meant for his family members, and for his faithful wife specifically, lack of financial stability, loneliness, pending his return from the regular task or from prison, and persecution on the part of the government: "Gaya had chosen a difficult life. She constantly had to face persecution  of herself, her husband and her son on the part of the government; their dog was poisoned, and they were regularly threatened on the phone… but she didn't give in, she didn't prefer stability, private life and peace"(Gutovska-Adamchik 2001: 30).T he oppositioner's spouse provided her husband with moral and, in many cases, with material support; not only did she collect food parcels for him and visit him in prison, but she also continued his work: "Yazek was  arrested along with dozens of other opposition members… And faithful Gaya managed to get to Gdansk, to Walesa just in time before signing of the August Agreements ; so he managed to lay down conditions on release of political prisoners"(Ibid.:  35) Dissemination of the illegal materials and information, organization of work on the leaflets publication was also carried out by female comrades-in -arms. In our opinion the romantic image of a female comrade-in-arms who took part in the opposition in the name of struggle for the freedom of the nation was to a great extent influenced by nationalistic tendencies in the ideology of Solidarity.

 Besides the romantic component the image of a female comrade-in-arms included participation in the opposition by analogy with the model of the professional employment of women in Poland. Carrying out the secondary, routine work, women - comrades-in-arms did not usually seek for high positions "They don't consider their activity as means of creating prestige; they do not want anything for themselves, do not look for anything. It's unimportant whether she is a professor or an office- cleaner, she is always ready to be a messenger, to deliver food and tea, and she never asks too many questions. And she is well aware of the fact that she is taking risks… Anonymous heroines - that is a good name I would give them"(Illegals 1987: 153) The leaders of Solidarity marked off that in the oppositional work women were less accurate  and more talkative that men, but they were able to express their opinions simply. "In the conditions of conspiracy women are more industrious and less exigent  than men. They are not very ambitious. They do not feel like being in the central organs, they are ready to wash the tools after printers and deliver their letters (Illegals 1987: 153) Female comrades-in-arms performed the duties of secretaries, publishers, messengers, combining, as a rule, participation in Solidarity with family care, thus reproducing an official socialistic model of a working mother. And the maternity suffered competition on the part of a professional oppositional activity of women; its status varied depending on to what extent women were involved in Solidarity. Thus, evaluating oppositional activity of women as a professional one, we can interpret the image of a comrade-in-arms to be close to the official image of a socialistic woman.

 Mother.

 On the examples of the images of revolutionary women and comrades-in-arms we could see that combination of socialistic and nationalistic tendencies in the ideology of Solidarity permitted combination of the role of mother and professional activity. But as distinct from the image of "a socialistic woman", the image of a woman totally devoted to family, was being created by Solidarity. The image of a mother, whose embodiment was Lech Walesa's wife Danuta, could be reconstructed by means of the analysis of his biography.

 Unlike a comrade-in-arms, the image of a wife and a mother of an oppositioner's children did not mean participation in the oppositional activity. The prerogatives of the mother of an oppositioner's children came to be family care and the moral support to a husband.

 Religiousness, submission to her husband and devotion to family were recognized to be the most important qualities of a mother. Lech Walesa declared the importance of family based on the woman -a mother and a wife. (Walesa 1991:237) His wife Danuta was a bearer of these ideas. Danuta Walesa got married at the age of 19. She considered maternity, which had become true to the full extent, to be her main mission.(Walesa 1990: 50) There were eight children in the family of Walesa. Danuta's life was devoted to their upbringing. Danuta had never participated in any professional activity either before or after her wedding.

 Catholic traditions of the development of the family, which were strictly observed by Danuta, were to some extent broken by Walesa  - he could not earn his family living i.e. to reproduce a traditional division of roles: a woman - housewife and a man - bread-winner, because of his participation in the opposition. But Danuta, as an exemplary Catholic wife, considered all decisions made by her husband to be the only correct ones, and she never condemned them. Walesa did not involve his wife in his oppositional work limiting the sphere of her activity by family duties: "I consciously did not make Danuta my comrade."(Walesa 1990). His family lived in permanent poverty, but the spouses made their decision to observe Catholic traditions and to bring up as many children as " God gives them". Danuta supported her husband in all his undertakings, but she was not practically involved in his work until the introduction of the  martial law in December 1981.

 Walesa characterized  Danuta as the source of inexaustable force and moral support: "Danuta possessed a suprising tact and tenderness, she could understand the course of things by intuition and to offer the only right decision to the most of problems."(Ibid.: 91). In this case the image of a mother and a wife is close to the image of a female comrade-in-arms.

 Beside her work about the house and bringing up her big family Danuta managed to provide the atmosphere of cosiness and peace at home (Craig 1986).In contrast to the image of a female comrade-in-arms,seen to be only a helper though important, a wife of a revolutionary could symbolize an oppositionary himself in the opinion of the world community. So Danuta Walesa represented her husband at the ceremony when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, as Lech Walesa was barred from leaving the country. (Walesa 1990).

 Little by little the family of Walesa was involved in his activity, but not in the quality of active oppositioners but as a symbol of the oppositional struggle. The image of Danuta Walesa, a selfless mother and wife, was percieved by Poles as a symbol of revival of Catholic traditions, opposed to a foisted image of a socialistic woman. So the image of a mother in the ideology of Solidarity was conditioned by strong influence of religious (Catholic) traditions which were in its turn personified by the Polish Catholic Church.(Osa 1997).

 Thus, the official image of a socialistic woman that included the roles of a worker, a citizen and a mother was transformed by the ideology of Solidaity into the images of a revolutionary woman, a female comrade-in-arms and a mother. And the image of a revolutionary woman was constructed under under the noticeable influence of "an official image" borrowing the elements of the socialistic image of a revolutionary woman and a worker; the image of a female comrade-in-arms was constructed through combination of socialistic and nationalistic tendencies in the ideology of Solidarity, and the image of a mother was influenced by religious traditions.

 On the example of the reconstruction of the processes of creating of the female images in the ideology of Solidarity we can see that the socialistic ideas and notions were not completely denied; on the contrary, it is possible to retrace borrowing and even copying them.So we came to the conclusion, that the ideology of Solidarity of the period of the 1980-1981, expressed in gender representations, though  it was later on called to be oppositional because of its return to Catholic traditions, bore a mixed and, to some extent, a compromised character combining religious, nationalistic, and socialistic ideoligical components.

 References.

1.         Gutovska-Adamchik M. 2001 "You Can't Say "Count Me Out"The Story of Yazek Kuron, New Poland.#9(23).

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