Authors

Discussion

This paper explores the life and achievements of Wanda Pelczyńska, an outstanding representative of a generation of Polish women in the XX century. Well-educated, bold, and not afraid to take matters into their own hands.

Using the example of Wanda Pelczyńska, I aim to show how strength and determination can challenge social opinion and established patterns.

In the years 1912–1914, Wanda was one of the first women to study Polish language at the Jagiellonian University, simultaneously completing a non-commissioned officer course. As a part of the women's intelligence service within the Polish Legions, she took part in the First World War and then in the Polish-Soviet War as the head of couriers on the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front.

Poland regaining independence offered the chance for a new life for her and many women of her generation. This study shows that Pełczyńska did not waste this opportunity.

She became the editor of the first Polish women's magazines, Ivy (Bluszcz) and Modern Woman (Kobieta Współczesna) Covering current socio-economic issues, it brought together almost all of the most outstanding Polish writers of that period.

In the years 1935–1938, she was one of only two female members of the Lower House of the Polish Parliament. (Sejm). As a member of the Education, Labour, and Foreign Affairs Committee, she is considered one of the most outstanding MPs of this era. She repeatedly appeared in Parliamentary debates to defend the national rights of Belarusians and Ukrainians, strongly condemning anti-Semitism.

Just when it seemed that her literary and political career was in full swing, World War II broke out.

An analysis of her wartime involvement in the polish resistance movement proves that neither the hardships of the war nor her arrest by the NKVD (Soviet authorities) nor the death of her son in the Warsaw Uprising broke her spirit and determination.

After the end of the war, she rebuilt her life in London. She was involved in the activities of Polish women's organizations; as the co-founder and the first president of the Union of Polish Women in Exile. She was the only woman who stood as a candidate for the Polish government in exile.

Awarded many medals, including the Virtuti Militari, the Knight's Cross, and the Officer's Cross in the Order of Polonia Restituta, she remained faithful to her beliefs, as an active member in many women's organizations, speaker at various congresses, she set an example for the next generation of young feminists.

An assessment of Wanda Pelczyńska's activities and achievements in the context of the realities of the period in which she lived might answer the question whether her aspirations and convictions were an exception or typical of the generation of Polish women who settled in Great Britain after World War II?