Manuela Gretkowska met with readers at Galeria Format. She was another outstanding guest invited by director Halina Majewska. The writer spoke mainly about women, their social role, and discrimination in social and political life. She also talked about education in Poland, as well as her work, philosophy, and the Women’s Party, which she founded.
She speaks openly and frankly about her political activity: “I was politically stupid.” She founded the Women’s Party out of a need for social action. Just as at home, if she lacks something, she does it herself. In Poland, she lacked a party that would genuinely care for women. Those were her motives.
“Polish women are among the most frustrated women in the world,” says Gretkowska. “They are surpassed by Japanese women, who sometimes, driven to the edge, kill their husbands. Polish women do not keep samurai swords in their living rooms. They are like Muslim terrorists wrapped in rags and covered with dynamite. They direct their aggression at themselves,” adds the founder of the Women’s Party.
Manuela Gretkowska’s views are clear. Society and the state place responsibility for raising children on Polish women. Among other reasons, this means they are paid less at work while holding the same position as men. More than 50% of women give up their professions because of raising a child. Governments do not ensure that every small Polish child has a place in a nursery or preschool. At home, mothers perform around 14 occupations, yet the prevailing view is still that raising a child and taking care of the household is not real work. Polish women continue to fulfill a service-oriented role, and they are raised to perform such a role in life. This is so deeply rooted in women’s mentality that women themselves do not notice it. At Woodstock, a young woman attacked Gretkowska. She asked the writer why she was so aggressive toward men, because she herself did not feel discriminated against. The writer then understood that, for women in Poland, a lower social status is as natural as growing breasts.
Manuela Gretkowska is not aggressive toward men. She criticizes a bad system, male political thinking, and a rigid patriarchy. She says of herself: “I am a feminist, meaning a woman who cares about her dignity and is not a masochist.”
She emphasizes women’s strength and their many talents, as well as the power of their intuition. As an anthropologist, she proposed a very convincing theory that the first human being on Earth was a woman-poet. She spoke about the diversity of relationships. “There are many ways of being together,” she argued. “In the past, matriarchy, patriarchy, partnerships, and homosexual relationships existed alongside one another. These changes are also taking place today. The world is moving away from the one supposedly correct model of a relationship: the patriarchal, heterosexual family. Diversity enables the development and freedom so necessary for modern societies,” Gretkowska explained.
Speaking about her philosophy, she recommends the thinker and writer Ken Wilber. The writer appreciates his approach to human development. Wilber writes about four halves from which every person is made and which should be developed equally. They are the psyche, spirituality, physicality, and social skills. Poland lacks the latter. The writer cites research showing that Poles do not trust one another and are reluctant to act for the benefit of the communities in which they live.
At the end of the meeting, Manuela Gretkowska asked the women a question: “We are good, but are we wise to allow ourselves to be treated this way? Do we want to continue, to quote Magdalena Środa, being objects rather than subjects of the decisions being made?”
Gretkowska treats Poland as her home. She decided to do something in it. She certainly needs support. The best support we can give her is ourselves – Polish women citizens.
(GH information)