Solidarity beyond Gender (?): Men's Support in the Struggle for Polish Women's Suffrage

Duda presents an aspect of his research on men who supported the emancipation of Polish women at the turn of the twentieth century. He discusses writers who called for universal and equal voting rights for both sexes, highlighting Edward Pradzynski's book as well as journalistic writing by Eugeniusz Starczewski and Jan Urban. A key event is Leon Petrazycki's speech to the First Duma in 1906. Petrazycki, a university professor and delegate, headed a sub-commission on women's rights, and he worked with the Zwiazek Rownouprawnienia Kobiet (Union for the Equal Rights of Polish Women) in Saint Petersburg. His speech was translated into Polish, French, Italian, English and German. This episode of the First Duma is a key example of men's efforts to support the voting rights reforms that were composed and declared following the 1905 Russian Revolution.