Download issue (PDF) - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

Women: International
and family issues. Rapaczynski contends
that Polish feminists are “much more
focused on politics versus bedrock issues….
They are Warsaw University
feminists who are class oriented—who
have an outflowing of rage on behalf of
cleaning women who want an earlier
retirement age. It is extremely irritating.”
The paper’s editorial stance on the
key hot-button issue of reproductive
rights stops short of being pro-choice,
and there is not a lot of attention paid
to the ramifications of illegal abortion
in a country where underground abortions
flourish. Luczywo says she is “very,
very uncomfortable” with a “completely
pro-choice position,” partly because of
abuses under Communism when contraception
was not available; the state
promoted abortions—and woman had
an average of 20.
In many ways, “women’s place” in
society was up for grabs in the new
Poland. The Catholic Church urged
women to go home, as full-time wives
and mothers. Women who took demanding
jobs in the new economy
faced irate husbands who still wanted
meals on the table—at four in the afternoon.
And early reporting in Gazeta
Wyborcza was spotty. A story about a
1991 march by the Polish Feminist Association
quoted an unnamed man as
saying, in essence, that the activists
were so ugly they needed “a better sex
life.” A Polish-American woman, who
had donated to underground Solidarity,
wrote Luczywo to congratulate her
on the success of the paper—and to
express dismay at the slurs in that story.
Subsequent news stories did a better
job of tracking “women’s place” incidents.
Some examples:
• An Exxon billboard used a “dumb
broad” message to sell motor oil,
complete with a smirking husband
next to his distraught wife at the
wheel. Fledgling feminists took
umbrage and substituted their own
message, an incident that was written
about in Gazeta Wyborcza. Few
advertisers made that mistake again.
• When a high school principal limited
a new computer class to boys,
parents of girls sought out a Gazeta
reporter to complain. Girls were admitted.
Under Communism, many special
privileges were given to mothers and
not to women in general. With capitalism,
it’s become more expensive to
hire these women; taking away the
benefits is politically risky. Maternity
leaves are paid for 24 weeks and employers
must retain a woman’s job for
three years if she takes a full maternity
leave. Western-type pay disparities also
exist since women held many top professional
jobs at hospitals and universities,
which today are among the lowerpaid
jobs in Poland—much lower, for
example, than the pay for jobs in maledominated
professions such as financial
services.
These are complex issues related to
the nation’s transition and are, in many
ways, more difficult stories to cover
than those from earlier times when
women might have been barred from
universities or top jobs or from receiving
credit. Gazeta Wyborcza covers
these issues, but women’s rights leaders
often complain that they don’t do it
well enough.
Wanda Nowicka, director of the Polish
Federation for Women and Family
Planning, is a critic of the paper, but
she is glad that High Heels has proven
a success despite “writing serious stories.”
That, she concedes, will help
legitimize those issues across society.
One can hardly ask for more praise
than that. ■
Peggy Simpson, a 1979 Nieman
Fellow, has been working in Poland
as a freelance journalist.
psimpson@it.com.pl
Reporting on War, Listening to Women
An Indonesian journalist argues that women have a ‘psychological map’ of war.
By Ratih Hardjono
Women living in conflict zones
have strong views about conflicts
that overtake their lives
and community. They have political
views about their situation but, for
most of them, politics isn’t the most
important thing. What they care most
about is assuring the survival of their
families and communities. And, since
men dominate the political arena, it is
usually they who decide whether a war
will be fought, then fight it. Women are
left to cope with the results once the
war has ended.
In the coverage of war, it is stories
about women’s lives that often go untold.
In 1995, I attended a funeral of a
young Hutu man killed in Bujumbura,
Burundi. Foreign journalists waited in
the front yard while a coffin was hastily
being built out of leftover fruit boxes.
When we got to the graveyard, we
waited again while his family dug the
grave. During this time, a wild-eyed
woman approached me, pointed to my
camera and pulled my hand gently.
She then sat by the fragile coffin and
looked straight into my camera. After
taking her photo, she wrote her address
on a tiny piece of torn paper and
gave it to me. I assumed it was natural
that she would want a picture for her
and her children, for memory’s sake.
There was no exchange of words
between us. We didn’t share a common
language but even if we had, she
82 Nieman Reports / Winter 2001