Natalia Jarska
Biographic Data
| ID | 249551 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natalia Jarska |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natalia |
| FAMILY NAME | Jarska |
| SIGNATURE | JARSKA N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Polish Academy of Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5321-768X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Polish Sexual Revolutions. Negotiating Sexuality and Modernity behind the Iron Curtain. By Anna Dobrowolska
Educational Expertise, Networks, and Policy-Making under State Socialism
This article comparatively examines expertise and policy-making related to school maturity in postwar Czechoslovakia and Poland. Through an analysis of published sources and archival material, it traces the intensive development of pedagogical and psychological expertise about school maturity from the early 1960s onward and examines how that development influenced the policies introduced in both countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using …
Women's activism and state policies during International Women's Year and the United Nations decade for women
This forum examines the celebrations of International Women’s Year (IWY) by the United Nations (UN) and member states in 1975, along with the subsequent UN Decade for Women, in different national c
International Women's Year and women's activism
This paper provides a comparative study of the impact of the 1975 International Women’s Year (IWY) on women’s activism in two non-democratic European countries: Spain and Poland. Intended by the United Nations (UN) to advance women’s rights globally, the effects of IWY were significantly influenced by national contexts. In Spain, activities relating to IWY unfolded in two interconnected spheres: the official arena controlled by the authorised Fra…
Turning points in socialist medicine
Socialist states aspired to create modern, egalitarian societies with healthy citizens. Over the four decades of state socialism, experts debated whether premature children could achieve normal long-term mental development and full societal integration. This article analyses expertise networks to comparatively explore medical discussions regarding premature infants’ long-term development in Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia. We exa…
Saving newborns, defining livebirth
After World War II, infant mortality rates started dropping steeply. We show how this was accomplished in socialist countries in East-Central Europe. Focusing on the two postwar decades, we explore comparatively how medical experts in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany saved fragile newborns. Based on an analysis of medical journals, we argue that the Soviet Union and its medical practices had only a marginal influence; the four co…
Early state socialism and eugenics
The article discusses the immediate post-war persistence and subsequent rejection of eugenics in East-Central European socialist states, exploring the case of premarital medical certificates. Building our analysis on published and archival sources, we show that immediately after the war, policies formulated at the governmental level were informed by eugenic ideas in medical expertise. Premarital medical certificates were aimed at combatting conta…
Unawareness and Expertise
Polish Experts in School-based Sex Education and the West
In this paper I examine the relationship between Polish experts on school-based sex education and international developments in the field during the post-war period. From 1956 onwards, Polish experts, hoping to introduce sex education to schools, drew on Western experience and knowledge. Using Polish sources, I focus on the ways in which this knowledge was transmitted, the role of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the approach …
Explaining the Calendar
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
The struggle for marital equality beyond Cold War political divides
This article discusses the transnational relationships between women lawyers from Poland and Spain that developed within the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers (Fédération Internationale des Femmes des Carrières Juridiques, FIFCJ) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Drawing on archival material and published sources, it traces the history of relations between the Spanish lawyer María Telo Núñez and the Spanish Association of Wome…
Premarital Sex in State-Socialist Poland
In this article, we examine personal narratives on premarital sex by two generations of Polish men and women—one born in the 1950s and 1960s, and their parents’ generation, born in the 1920s and 1930s and coming of age during or after World War II—and place these in dialogue with discourses surrounding young sexuality in state-socialist Poland. Using sociological surveys, popular sexological literature, and Catholic marriage preparation material,…
Marriage, Gender and Demographic Change
This paper explores fertility management practices in state-socialist Poland and investigates post-war demographic change through the lenses of gender and modernization. Using personal narratives from oral histories and memoirs, we examine reproductive decision-making processes from the 1940s to the 1980s, focusing on motivations, norms, and the means employed to achieve desired family size. Our analysis reveals the ambiguous nature of both moder…
We treat each other as equal partners’ the understanding of companionate marriage in postwar Poland
This paper aims to describe a model of companionate marriage developed in postwar Poland. It traces the evolution of ideas around marriage and gender roles from the interwar to the postwar period. The paper focuses on popular understandings of gender and marriage, and takes advantage of a collection of original personal narratives written in the 1960s. A comparison between memoirs written by authors married in the interwar and postwar period reve…
Men as Husbands and Fathers in Postwar Poland (1956-1975)
The aim of this paper is to explore the popular perception of men in family roles. In a broader perspective, it explores the effects of social changes under state-socialism on men's identities and the perception of gender difference. I focus on popular understandings of masculinity, taking advantage of massive ego-documents (contest memoirs). I argue that in the 1960s and the 1970s, people in Poland negotiated gender roles in marriage, questioned…
Sexuality and gender in school-based sex education in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in the 1970s and 1980s
Was there a state-socialist model of school sex education and if so, what characterized its form and content? What shaped the specificities and divergent characteristics of each country? The paper explores and compares programs of ‘education for family life’ as these became part of state-driven reproductive politics in late stages of state socialism in three countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary), with a particular focus on sexuality and gen…
Female Breadwinners in State Socialism
This article examines popular opinion about women's wage work in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Poland, using letters to institutions and sociological research from this period. It introduces the notion of female breadwinning as a useful category to describe the understanding of women's wage work under state socialism. Opinions on women's wage work varied, but all of them were based on gender assumptions. Women's and men's work were valued dif…
Modern Marriage and the Culture of Sexuality
Through an analysis of archival documents and the published writings of experts, this paper explores the relationships between the emerging field of sexology, the state, and the Catholic Church in post-1956 Poland, as these relationships play an important role in the history of sexuality under state socialism. In the period in question, experts in sexuality, mainly medical doctors, focused on how to improve sexual relations within marriage. They …
Łucja Charewiczowa’ Seminar in History of Women and Gender, Affiliated to Warsaw Scientific Society and Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences "The gender of historical protagonists seems to be, if anything, an awarenessinforming factor and a driver behind action only for the female part of society and in female-dominated spheres". 1This, not too optimistic, statement made by a German historian some twenty years ago seems still valid, at least in the Polish context.Although the category of '(cultural) gender' is increasingly in use, there…
The periphery revisited
This paper explores the characteristics of post-war Polish historiography on the working class and relates it to current trends in global labour history. Although, in Poland, labour history never existed as a separate field, many historians focused their studies on either working-class history or the history of the workers’ movement. After 1945, Polish historiography was circumscribed by political and ideological considerations; however – except …
Gender and Labour in Post-War Communist Poland
The article discusses the issue of female unemployment in Poland between 1945 and 1970 – the scale and reasons of the phenomenon and the attempts to eliminate it. The joblessness history is a pretext for showing the role of gender in the shaping of the labour market in the People’s Republic of Poland. The general reason behind the difficulties faced by women in finding a job was that gainful employment, or career, was in the case of females perce…
Modern Marriage and the Culture of Sexuality
Through an analysis of archival documents and the published writings of experts, this paper explores the relationships between the emerging field of sexology, the state, and the Catholic Church in post-1956 Poland, as these relationships play an important role in the history of sexuality under state socialism. In the period in question, experts in sexuality, mainly medical doctors, focused on how to improve sexual relations within marriage. They …
Sexuality and gender in school-based sex education in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in the 1970s and 1980s
Was there a state-socialist model of school sex education and if so, what characterized its form and content? What shaped the specificities and divergent characteristics of each country? The paper explores and compares programs of ‘education for family life’ as these became part of state-driven reproductive politics in late stages of state socialism in three countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary), with a particular focus on sexuality and gen…
Marriage, Gender and Demographic Change
This paper explores fertility management practices in state-socialist Poland and investigates post-war demographic change through the lenses of gender and modernization. Using personal narratives from oral histories and memoirs, we examine reproductive decision-making processes from the 1940s to the 1980s, focusing on motivations, norms, and the means employed to achieve desired family size. Our analysis reveals the ambiguous nature of both moder…
Explaining the Calendar
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
Men as Husbands and Fathers in Postwar Poland (1956-1975)
The aim of this paper is to explore the popular perception of men in family roles. In a broader perspective, it explores the effects of social changes under state-socialism on men's identities and the perception of gender difference. I focus on popular understandings of masculinity, taking advantage of massive ego-documents (contest memoirs). I argue that in the 1960s and the 1970s, people in Poland negotiated gender roles in marriage, questioned…
Gender and Labour in Post-War Communist Poland
The article discusses the issue of female unemployment in Poland between 1945 and 1970 – the scale and reasons of the phenomenon and the attempts to eliminate it. The joblessness history is a pretext for showing the role of gender in the shaping of the labour market in the People’s Republic of Poland. The general reason behind the difficulties faced by women in finding a job was that gainful employment, or career, was in the case of females perce…
Female Breadwinners in State Socialism
This article examines popular opinion about women's wage work in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Poland, using letters to institutions and sociological research from this period. It introduces the notion of female breadwinning as a useful category to describe the understanding of women's wage work under state socialism. Opinions on women's wage work varied, but all of them were based on gender assumptions. Women's and men's work were valued dif…
Unawareness and Expertise
Premarital Sex in State-Socialist Poland
In this article, we examine personal narratives on premarital sex by two generations of Polish men and women—one born in the 1950s and 1960s, and their parents’ generation, born in the 1920s and 1930s and coming of age during or after World War II—and place these in dialogue with discourses surrounding young sexuality in state-socialist Poland. Using sociological surveys, popular sexological literature, and Catholic marriage preparation material,…
We treat each other as equal partners’ the understanding of companionate marriage in postwar Poland
This paper aims to describe a model of companionate marriage developed in postwar Poland. It traces the evolution of ideas around marriage and gender roles from the interwar to the postwar period. The paper focuses on popular understandings of gender and marriage, and takes advantage of a collection of original personal narratives written in the 1960s. A comparison between memoirs written by authors married in the interwar and postwar period reve…
The periphery revisited
This paper explores the characteristics of post-war Polish historiography on the working class and relates it to current trends in global labour history. Although, in Poland, labour history never existed as a separate field, many historians focused their studies on either working-class history or the history of the workers’ movement. After 1945, Polish historiography was circumscribed by political and ideological considerations; however – except …
Gender and Labour in Post-War Communist Poland
The article discusses the issue of female unemployment in Poland between 1945 and 1970 – the scale and reasons of the phenomenon and the attempts to eliminate it. The joblessness history is a pretext for showing the role of gender in the shaping of the labour market in the People’s Republic of Poland. The general reason behind the difficulties faced by women in finding a job was that gainful employment, or career, was in the case of females perce…
The periphery revisited
This paper explores the characteristics of post-war Polish historiography on the working class and relates it to current trends in global labour history. Although, in Poland, labour history never existed as a separate field, many historians focused their studies on either working-class history or the history of the workers’ movement. After 1945, Polish historiography was circumscribed by political and ideological considerations; however – except …
Łucja Charewiczowa’ Seminar in History of Women and Gender, Affiliated to Warsaw Scientific Society and Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences "The gender of historical protagonists seems to be, if anything, an awarenessinforming factor and a driver behind action only for the female part of society and in female-dominated spheres". 1This, not too optimistic, statement made by a German historian some twenty years ago seems still valid, at least in the Polish context.Although the category of '(cultural) gender' is increasingly in use, there…
Sexuality and gender in school-based sex education in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in the 1970s and 1980s
Was there a state-socialist model of school sex education and if so, what characterized its form and content? What shaped the specificities and divergent characteristics of each country? The paper explores and compares programs of ‘education for family life’ as these became part of state-driven reproductive politics in late stages of state socialism in three countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary), with a particular focus on sexuality and gen…
Female Breadwinners in State Socialism
This article examines popular opinion about women's wage work in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Poland, using letters to institutions and sociological research from this period. It introduces the notion of female breadwinning as a useful category to describe the understanding of women's wage work under state socialism. Opinions on women's wage work varied, but all of them were based on gender assumptions. Women's and men's work were valued dif…
Modern Marriage and the Culture of Sexuality
Through an analysis of archival documents and the published writings of experts, this paper explores the relationships between the emerging field of sexology, the state, and the Catholic Church in post-1956 Poland, as these relationships play an important role in the history of sexuality under state socialism. In the period in question, experts in sexuality, mainly medical doctors, focused on how to improve sexual relations within marriage. They …
We treat each other as equal partners’ the understanding of companionate marriage in postwar Poland
This paper aims to describe a model of companionate marriage developed in postwar Poland. It traces the evolution of ideas around marriage and gender roles from the interwar to the postwar period. The paper focuses on popular understandings of gender and marriage, and takes advantage of a collection of original personal narratives written in the 1960s. A comparison between memoirs written by authors married in the interwar and postwar period reve…
Men as Husbands and Fathers in Postwar Poland (1956-1975)
The aim of this paper is to explore the popular perception of men in family roles. In a broader perspective, it explores the effects of social changes under state-socialism on men's identities and the perception of gender difference. I focus on popular understandings of masculinity, taking advantage of massive ego-documents (contest memoirs). I argue that in the 1960s and the 1970s, people in Poland negotiated gender roles in marriage, questioned…
The struggle for marital equality beyond Cold War political divides
This article discusses the transnational relationships between women lawyers from Poland and Spain that developed within the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers (Fédération Internationale des Femmes des Carrières Juridiques, FIFCJ) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Drawing on archival material and published sources, it traces the history of relations between the Spanish lawyer María Telo Núñez and the Spanish Association of Wome…
Premarital Sex in State-Socialist Poland
In this article, we examine personal narratives on premarital sex by two generations of Polish men and women—one born in the 1950s and 1960s, and their parents’ generation, born in the 1920s and 1930s and coming of age during or after World War II—and place these in dialogue with discourses surrounding young sexuality in state-socialist Poland. Using sociological surveys, popular sexological literature, and Catholic marriage preparation material,…
Marriage, Gender and Demographic Change
This paper explores fertility management practices in state-socialist Poland and investigates post-war demographic change through the lenses of gender and modernization. Using personal narratives from oral histories and memoirs, we examine reproductive decision-making processes from the 1940s to the 1980s, focusing on motivations, norms, and the means employed to achieve desired family size. Our analysis reveals the ambiguous nature of both moder…
Unawareness and Expertise
Polish Experts in School-based Sex Education and the West
In this paper I examine the relationship between Polish experts on school-based sex education and international developments in the field during the post-war period. From 1956 onwards, Polish experts, hoping to introduce sex education to schools, drew on Western experience and knowledge. Using Polish sources, I focus on the ways in which this knowledge was transmitted, the role of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the approach …
Explaining the Calendar
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
Turning points in socialist medicine
Socialist states aspired to create modern, egalitarian societies with healthy citizens. Over the four decades of state socialism, experts debated whether premature children could achieve normal long-term mental development and full societal integration. This article analyses expertise networks to comparatively explore medical discussions regarding premature infants’ long-term development in Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia. We exa…
Saving newborns, defining livebirth
After World War II, infant mortality rates started dropping steeply. We show how this was accomplished in socialist countries in East-Central Europe. Focusing on the two postwar decades, we explore comparatively how medical experts in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany saved fragile newborns. Based on an analysis of medical journals, we argue that the Soviet Union and its medical practices had only a marginal influence; the four co…
Early state socialism and eugenics
The article discusses the immediate post-war persistence and subsequent rejection of eugenics in East-Central European socialist states, exploring the case of premarital medical certificates. Building our analysis on published and archival sources, we show that immediately after the war, policies formulated at the governmental level were informed by eugenic ideas in medical expertise. Premarital medical certificates were aimed at combatting conta…
Educational Expertise, Networks, and Policy-Making under State Socialism
This article comparatively examines expertise and policy-making related to school maturity in postwar Czechoslovakia and Poland. Through an analysis of published sources and archival material, it traces the intensive development of pedagogical and psychological expertise about school maturity from the early 1960s onward and examines how that development influenced the policies introduced in both countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using …
Women's activism and state policies during International Women's Year and the United Nations decade for women
This forum examines the celebrations of International Women’s Year (IWY) by the United Nations (UN) and member states in 1975, along with the subsequent UN Decade for Women, in different national c
International Women's Year and women's activism
This paper provides a comparative study of the impact of the 1975 International Women’s Year (IWY) on women’s activism in two non-democratic European countries: Spain and Poland. Intended by the United Nations (UN) to advance women’s rights globally, the effects of IWY were significantly influenced by national contexts. In Spain, activities relating to IWY unfolded in two interconnected spheres: the official arena controlled by the authorised Fra…
Polish Sexual Revolutions. Negotiating Sexuality and Modernity behind the Iron Curtain. By Anna Dobrowolska
Political science (18 works) · Sociology (18 works) · European history and politics (15 works) · Gender Studies (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies (14 works) · Politics (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes (9 works)