Underrepresented and Excluded from the Public Sphere: Women of Solidarity in Polish History Textbooks

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the Solidarity movement’s textbook narratives, focusing on women’s representation in the history textbooks used in upper-secondary schools between 1991-2018. Quantitative methods were used to measure different categories of historical figures (men/women) in terms of their frequency and textual space. To explore the values and ideologies embedded in the textbook narratives of Solidarity, the study was guided by the qualitative approach and the critical discourse analysis of both verbal and visual texts. Women consequently remain outside the historical narrative of Solidarity as a marginalized group. Stereotypical images and underrepresentation of women in history textbooks provide a distorted version of social reality, acknowledging that political and social activism belongs to the public sphere occupied by men. Moreover, it reproduces the view that women do not belong to the public sphere and cannot be leaders because they are positioned in the private sphere. From the perspective of citizenship education, such a strand reproduces or/and reinforces social inequalities.