Female scientists from our university who engage their skills and passions in research contribute to the civilisation progress. They are also an inspiration to future generations of men and women who are just embarking on the exciting path of their scientific careers.
Thanks to the experience and skills of women who make up the administration of the University of Lodz, the day-to-day operation of our university is becoming increasingly efficient.
Female students of all study levels are recognised for their determination to learn, their abilities and commitment.
Thanks to the women, our university is becoming more and more open and diverse. All the best!
In popular opinions repeated for several decades, we hear that Lodz is a city of women. What do we really know about them? Female textile workers from Lodz are the first thing that comes to our minds. What about female academics, workers of the film industry and other industries in Lodz? Did you know that at the University of Lodz there is a long tradition of research dedicated to women's work?
Let's give the floor to Dr Iza Desperak, the co-editor of a publication entitled "Miasto pracujących kobiet".
It has turned out that while writing about the history of women's work, or writing the herstory of work in Lodz, we firstly come across areas that have hitherto been either unexplored or not popularised. The research on women's work itself appeared to be one of such areas. Therefore, myself and Martyna Krogulec have written a chapter dedicated to Lodz, the University of Lodz and the Faculty of Economics and Sociology, as well as our department as the main centre for research on women's work.
The book's editors – Dr Iza Desperak and Martyna Krogulec, a doctoral student from the Institute of Sociology at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz, put forward a thesis that Lodz is a city, both in fact and symbolically, built on the phenomenon of women's work – female textile workers, female scientists, co-founders of the first universities in Lodz or female activists making political careers in the communist period.
As we read in the book's introduction – this publication is a kind of attempt to settle accounts with the history of our city (...) Unfortunately, the past years still hide many historical testimonies that would show the history of our city from the perspective of work of female inhabitants of Lodz – regardless of whether we are talking about blue- or white-collar workers. The project on the forgotten history of women's work and research in this field was to recall, among other things, the output of such research carried out in Lodz over the last half-century, especially the research of the Lodz sociological centre.
Female sociologists, ethnologists, historians and a female professor of occupational medicine have decided to try, even if only to a small extent, to restore the memory of not only the now-forgotten research, but also about researchers and female researchers of this subject matter.
What do we find in "Miasto pracujących kobiet"?
mgr Anna Deredas, dr hab. Inga Kuźma and Dr Alicja Piotrowska from the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Lodz, present a picture of women's work that emerges from the collections of the ethnographic archive in Lodz.
Did you know?
As nineteenth-century statistics already showed, the number of female inhabitants of Lodz exceeded (and still exceeds) the number of male inhabitants. Additionally, the local workers' culture, with women as the majority among the workers was one of the flagship themes of Lodz ethnography in the post-war period (roughly from the 1960s to the 1980s).
Dr Sylwana Borszyńska describes the reality of women's work in Lodz before the First World War. The editors of the volume, Dr Iza Desperak and Martyna Krogulec, recall the recent history of work sociology in Lodz, and dr hab. Teresa Makowiec-Dąbrowska from the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine outlines the evolution of views and legislation on women’s occupational health protection.
Did you know?
In the post-war period we have seen a sharp increase in students? In the academic year 1937/1938 there were 14.4 students per 10,000 inhabitants, in the first year of reconstruction 1945/1946 there were already 23.1 of them. Then the proportion was steadily increasing: in 1950/1951 it was already 50.0 and in 1960/1961 it was 55.414. In 1960, 415,000 people had a university degree, in 1988 this number was already 1.8 million 15. There were also more and more women among the students, as well as physical workers and peasants (from 19% before the war to 44.5% in the 1960s).
We then move on to the scientific careers of women. Dr Agata Zysiak writes about female professors in Communist Poland and the limitations on the academic advancement of women.
Did you know?
We know, for example, that female graduates of the University of Lodz, despite having the same or even better academic results than male graduates of the university, after graduation received lower paid jobs. At the same time, more and more women were entering university in general. In the early years of the communist era, special emphasis was placed on education for industry.
Daria Domarańczyk-Cieślak – presents the Lodz pioneers of scientific psychology. The party careers of women in Communist Poland are in turn presented by Dr Piotr Ossowski.
Did you know?
In the chapter "Łódzkie Pionierki Psychologii Naukowej"[Lodz Pioneers of Scientific Psychology] we get to know the profiles of the first female representatives of the profession who operated in Lodz. Maria Lipska-Librachová was described first. As a psychologist, she was most interested in the child – the relationship between their mental and physical development. She wrote and contributed to a number of journals. Franciszka Baumgarten was the second of the pioneers of Lodz scientific psychology. Her research interests included industrial psychology and career counselling (employee selection in terms of psycho-physical aptitude and marriage counselling). Natalia Han-Ilgiewicz is the last of the presented psychologist. She taught psychology and special pedagogy at the Psychiatric Hygiene College in Warsaw, the State Medical School in Lodz, the Faculty of Pedagogy at the University of Warsaw and the Catholic University of Lublin. She published several books on child psychology.
The volume concludes with an article by a sociologist, dr hab. Ewelina Wejbert-Wąsiewicz, Associate Professor, on women's work in the film industry, and an article by dr hab. Kamila Żyto from the Department of Film and Audio-Visual Media at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lodz, on the cinematic image of female textile workers in Lodz.
Did you know?
The rich and specific heritage of Lodz, both creative and restorative, is a result of women's work. In addition to undertaking artistic work, as part of film works, documentaries or works about art, educational work (educational and training films), women in Lodz efficiently reproduced, technically processed, produced, developed a variety of films, significantly satisfying the needs of the cinematographic industry in the country. Female workers, quality cinema equipment controllers, assistants, teachers, skilful craftswomen in the field of dialogues and editing, copywriters, but also artists, directors – they all acted in the field of 'invisible', 'underestimated' film production.
A description of the Lodz female scientists, including biographical sketches of selected female researchers, is a special addition developed by the Łódzki Szlak Kobiet. This is a reprint from the community monthly journal "Miasto Ł.", published in Lodz in recent years,
evidence of the existence of scientific herstory outside the fabric of the university, in a lively social space, and evidence of the growing popularity of the subject.
There we will find profiles of female scientists who co-founded the University of Lodz after 1945, such as Professor Antonina Kłoskowska, regarded as the legend of sociology in Lodz and in general, Professor Maria Osowska – an ethicist and sociologist of morality, Professor Stefania Skwarczyńska – a literary scholar, and Professor Helena Radlińska – a pedagogue.
Did you know?
The phenomenon of Kloskowska, master and teacher, was described by the late popular sociologist and publicist Edmund Lewandowski. He noted that one of her master's seminars had produced a whole generation of future academics who had been building the Institute of Sociology at the University of Lodz when the old masters
had retired. Today they are approaching retirement and telling the next generation not only about the master-student relationship, but also about Kłoskowska on a day-to-day basis. Reportedly, as a promoter she used to give a brilliant piece of advice: write one page every day, and in ten days you will have a whole chapter.
The book – an attempt to settle accounts with the history of Lodz
The publication "Miasto pracujących kobiet" is a result of an independent project coordinated by the Interdisciplinary Gender Seminar at the University of Lodz Centre of Social Innovations, in which researchers representing various disciplines and approaches – male and female sociologists, historians, philologists, ethnologists – used to meet for several months and discuss what each of them could contribute to the study of a seemingly "trope" topic such as women's work in Lodz.
The mission of the University of Lodz is to conduct reliable research and actively disseminate facts and research results so as to wisely educate future generations, be useful to society and courageously respond to the challenges of the modern world. Scientific excellence is always our best compass. Our values include: courage, curiosity, commitment, cooperation and respect.
Source: Publication "Miasto pracujących kobiet" Lodz University Press
Edit: Honorata Ogieniewska, Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz