3rd Congress of Women
17th-18th September 2011
On 17th and 18th September this year the 3rd Congress of Women was held. The event was one of the crucial elements of the Polish Presidency in the European Union.
The Congress of Women was born in 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the political and economic transformations in Poland, where the participation of women could in no way be overemphasised. Today, the Congress of Women is Poland’s largest non-political civic movement, aiming at equality of rights, opportunities, and potential of women and men in both the private and the public spheres. The Council of the Congress consists of 200 prominent and active women, whose number includes politicians, entrepreneurs, civil activists, ministers, culture activists, feminists, and women from the left and right of the political spectrum. Patrons of the Congress include Henryka Bochniarz (President of the Confederation of Private Employers), Magdalena Abakanowicz (sculptor), Danuta Hübner (Member of European Parliament, former EU Commissioner), Henryka Krzywonos (heroine of the Solidarity movement), Danuta Wałęsa (wife of the former President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Wałęsa), Małgorzata Tusk (wife of Prime Minister Donald Tusk), Jolanta Kwaśniewska (head of foundation, former first lady), Professor Magdalena Środa (former Minister for Equal Status of Women and Men), Professor Małgorzata Fuszara, Professor Eleonora Zielińska, Poressor Joanna Regulska and Olga Tokarczuk (writer).
The leading question of this year’s Congress will be “Quo vadis, world?”, as our gathering will be devoted to reflections concerning the situation in the post-crisis world. We will be keen on political, economic, scientific, ecological, existential, utopian, and cultural aspects. We want to hear the diagnostic theories for the current crisis, and “force” the participants to formulate and later discuss these ideas, to seek the reasons, define the multi-aspectual character of the crisis, yet first of all to consider the economic, political, cultural, and axiological implications of what is happening in Europe and the world, and what will happen in the near future.
We want to know to react. We want to learn to change the world. We are also interested in the female point of view, the way women perceive the world, but also the challenges that women face. For we know that women’s participation in the shaping of the world is something that is not only growing, but also desired.
The Congress of Women was held in Warsaw’s Congress Hall, accommodating a few thousand delegates. They were not just spectators: they are active women from all over Poland and – which is obvious when one considers the status of the event – top-rank politicians, women of science, culture, and economics.
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