POLAND: For the first time in Polish politics, the role of women is a serious campaign issue

Seven naked women promote the slogan "Poland is a Woman" on a poster of the Polish Women's Party led by popular author Manuela Gretkowska. They want to enter politics and cleanse it of all negative content brought by men. The poster, too brave to hang in public in strongly Catholic Poland, is an element of a political and social campaign. It has shocked conservative groups including members of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party who have described the poster as an insult to voters. The Women's party has taken up a fight against right-wing religious parties - such as the League of Polish Families, which wants to tighten the already restrictive abortion laws - and the male-dominated political spectrum. The party wants more child care available to working mothers, free contraception, a right to pain-free birth, expanded childcare, equal pay and pension rights. "It's not about the treatment of women, it's about women working together with men like in any normal democracy. If less than fifty percent of women are employed in a country, it means something is wrong. Woman can feel independent only if they have jobs," Gretkowska said, adding that Polish politics is run by men on behalf of other men and she is determined to change that. "If honest people enter politics, with a clear past and clear intention - as you can see we have nothing to hide - then we will be able to civilise politics, to bring it up to a higher standard. I am not talking about angels, because politics is not like that, but we can make the game cleaner, get rid of rapists, thieves, alcoholics and the like from the parliament. Bring normality." A recent opinion poll by the TNS-OBOP institute gives the party 3 per cent of the vote, below the 5 per cent needed for parliamentary seats. But other surveys this year have also suggested that up to 60 per cent of Polish women might be ready to vote for the party on October 21 in the privacy of the polling booth. Even a handful of seats could be enough to give it a say in a finely balanced parliament. Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski showed his support for female activists in a recent attempt to win women's votes. At a special meeting Kaczynski was photographed surrounded by a group of women holding toy ducks - a humorous symbol of the Kaczynski brothers. His twin brother President Lech Kaczynski has appointed an adviser on women's affairs, Nelly Rokita, to help to mobilise the Catholic female vote. Long-time PiS activist Jolanta Szczypinska says that she feels comfortable in a parliament dominated by men, but she agrees that more women are needed in politics. "I am used to being in politics, since I have done it for a long time, since the year 1980. I always worked with men and I always had a managerial role in my party and I supervised men. I have to say it always went very well. I have many male friends who support me, they don't treat me with any leniency because I expect a lot from myself and I also expect a lot from my colleagues. I am the deputy chairman of the parliamentary club and they see that I am not joking, when there is a goal to reach, it has to be done. And I am focussed in enforcing this." Szczypinska says.

ITN Source | October 15, 2007

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