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Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses how Polish contemporary rural women's movements compromise between their own values and the approach to tradition and gender framework set by the official authorities that finance their activities

Paper long abstract:

In the majority of rural areas in Poland, cultural animation and grassroots social support spheres are managed by Rural Housewives' Clubs, a form of women's association characteristic of non-urban areas. The ideological and pragmatic foundations of Clubs, strongly associated with the idea of restructuring and modernization of villages, were modified along with changes in the political and economic landscape. In the early 2000s, most of the Clubs operated as an informal social movement, covering the organizational costs from membership fees without significant external incomes, and decided to register the legal entity only after the new law introduced the possibility of applying for state funding. Most dedicated competitions organized by state institutions focus on cooking and folk, cultivating a broadly understood tradition that perpetuates stereotypes about women and gender in general. Despite the fact that portfolios of the most engaged circles had long exceeded the limits set by the Clubs' formula - including the limitation regarding the gender of the people involved, Clubs are still considered the cradle of traditionally performed femininity and labour division. The goal of this paper is to highlight how previously grassroots-like Clubs are forced to maneuver between the gender-imposed development trajectory suggested by state agencies & local authorities and the implementation of their own plan for social and cultural activities. The key feature of this process is negotiating within conditioned by tradition and supported by the government image of moderately passive femininity and involved position within almost-NGO association.