Women’s participation in the law-making activity of the Senate of the Second Republic

Paweł Fiktus

Abstract

At the end of World War I, in many European countries women won the active and passive right to vote. Poland was one of the first countries, where women were allowed to participate in political life. Already at the time of establishing the Legislative Sejm (1919) the first women-MPs took their seats in Parliament. Similarly, the situation presented itself in the case of the Senate. During its first session (1922) women participated in the works of the upper chamber. The purpose of this paper is to present the participation of women in the legislative work of the Senate in various terms of office. The participation of women in the legislative work of Parliament was characterized by their involvement in issues concerning education or social services, while avoiding participation in the legislative work or that dealing with political matters. The situation presented itself differently as regards women’s involvement in the work of the Senate. A good example here was the activity of Dorota Kałuszyńska, who – during the work on the so called April Constitution of 1935 – not only participated in it very actively, but also ruthlessly attacked the then ruling camp. Another very interesting episode related to activities of women in the Senate was an informal covenant during the work on the bill to limit the sale, administration and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Belonging to different political groups: the said D. Kłuszyńska as a representative of the Polish Socialist Party, Helena Kisielewska from the Bloc of National Minorities and Hanna Hubicka of BBWR [the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government] unanimously criticized the regulations in force, which – in their opinion – did not fulfill their role when it came to anti-alcohol protection. The participation of women as far as their number was concerned was indeed small, but the Senate (like Parliament) of the Second Republic functioned in the period when women had just begun their activity on the legislative forum. Undoubtedly, it was a very interesting period, in which women had the benefit in the form of gaining their parliamentary experience. For example, it gave rise to subsequent activities of Dorota Kłuszyńska, who actively participated in the legislative works of the Sejm in the years 1947–1952, dealing with social issues or family.