Local leadership of Women in Local Government in Rural Areas in Poland

In Poland there is a three-tier local government, consisting of a municipality, county and province. The phenomenon of local leadership should be analyzed on the municipal level because all kinds of municipal authorities (executive, legislative, subsidiary local government) come from direct local elections. As a result, such local leaders enjoy strong public support. The main goal of this paper will be to explore local leadership of women in rural municipalities in Poland. The analysis will be based on a number of women who candidate for or perform the following functions executive body - mayor; legislative body - councilor, representative of subsidiary local - village administrator. According to the statistical data, all of these positions are usually performed by men, not women. In order to achieve the abovementioned aim of the paper, it will be necessary to get the answers to some questions: How the involvement of women in local politics has changed after 1990? Which positions in local government on the municipality level are usually taken up by women? Are there any barriers for women to be local leaders on the municipality level? What qualities should a woman who is a local leader have? In the present paper the comparative method will be applied to e examine how women's participation in local politics has changed. The in-depth interview technique, on the other hand, will be used to obtain information about local women's leadership. It will be helpful, in order to attain the aim of the paper, to analyze the election results after 1990 and information included in rapports on discrimination of women, statistical data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland and information from interviews with women performing the functions of a mayor/ municipality administrator, councilor, or a village administrator.