Perspektywa kobieca w polityce społecznej

Abstract

For many decades, social policy ignored gender as a category used for describing and explaining social problems. It was believed that family (with the man as the breadwinner) was central to social life and that family was a fundamental representation of the interests of an individual. The result was a clear differentiation of the social security system by gender (gender determined access to socially valuable resources). In the European social policy the issue of counteracting discrimination on grounds of sex was taken in the Treaty of Rome and the Amsterdam Treaty, in which a notion of gender appeared. The fight against inequality between men and women has been institutionalized. In the Polish social policy woman is treated both in the traditional way (as an exception to the rule because of her maternal functions) and in a modern way. Since the mid-80s there has been a new concept, executed with varying intensity, of a woman who is individualized and treated as a subject, not as an object. There have been changes in the provisions of Polish law, new instruments and models of equal opportunities for women and men were introduced.