Image of a New Woman. Visualization of Polish social transformations at the beginning of the 1950s and the 1990s.

Natalia Pater
University of Gdańsk

Establishing socialism after Second World War and democracy after 1989 constitute a turning points in the modern Polish history. Social transformations seem to result among others in the attempt to redefine social roles, determined by the adopted ideology shaping a new political system.
Emancipation and equality of women incorporated either in socialist or democratic ideology, although following different patterns were supposed to improve a broadly understood women welfare.
The image of a New Woman from the 1950s and 1990s is commonly known. This popular image is, however, usually limited to verbal discourse created by the needs of political and ideological campaigns. Therefore, it would be worth examining visual representations dating form those periods and compare or contrast them with the verbal texts. Bearing in mind that verbal language plays a role of superior system defining all kinds of social interactions. Whereas visual discourse associated with private sphere and related to entertainment used to employ less formal and bureaucratic forms of communication which makes its transmission more reliable.