Miejsce pracy zawodowej w życiu kobiet śląskich

Abstract

For a long industrial period of timeperiod, women in Silesia were stereotypically seen as a non-working wivesnon-working wives, who were taking care of their hard-working husbands – miners. The point of this article is to show the place of professional work in the life of Silesian women. In the first part of the article, place of professional work in the life of Silesian women was analysed since the period of industrialism in the middle of XIX century and interwar period, based on historical materials. The period of real socialism and system transformation was discussed on the basis of sociological literature. During that time, Silesian women were gradually entering the labour market. In the second part of this article, current work situation of women and socioprofessional mobility in Silesian families due to their work iswork is presented, it is based on own research, which were carried out in the typical working classworking-class district in Katowice – Nikiszowiec and Giszowiec. In the conclusion, the article concludes that Silesian women within two genees only one, made a huge change of their social position. From being wives of their husbands, mostly miners, they became educated workers. Professional work is very important in their lives. It has not only existential, but also selfdevelopment and creative factors.