Volumen 37 (2019): Edición 1 (December 2019)

Liberalitas was one of the most important forms of social activities of the Roman emperors. In quantitative terms, it is also one of the five most important imperial virtues. It appeared on coins as Liberalitas Augusti, which gave this virtue an additional, divine dimension. The first Empress to depict the idea of imperial generosity on the coins issued on her behalf was Julia Domna. In this respect, her liberalitas coins mark a breakthrough in the exposition of this imperial virtue. The well-known female liberalitas coin issues, or imperial issues with empresses’ portraits, date back to the third century and clearly articulate the liberalitas, both iconographically and literally, through the legend on the reverse of the coin. Other coins, issued on behalf of the emperors (mainly medallions), accentuate in some cases (Julia Mamaea, Salonina) the personal and active participation of women from the imperial house in congiarium-type activities. The issues discussed and analysed, which appeared on behalf of the emperors or the imperial women – with a clear emphasis on the role of women – undoubtedly demonstrate the feminine support for the emperor’s social policy towards the people of Rome, including the various social undertakings of incumbent emperors, to whom they were related. They prove their active involvement and support for the image of the princeps created by the emperors through the propaganda of virtues (such as liberalitas). The dynastic policy of the emperors, in which the empresses played a key role, was also of considerable importance.

In February 1914, the Agricultural Associations of Housewives, operating in the Eastern provinces of Prussia since the 1890s, were subordinated to organisations responsible for the development of agriculture in Prussia, which were dominated by conservatives and noble landowners. This came about on the initiative of some influential agrarians, who, in this way, wanted to strengthen their influence in rural areas, as well as to include the women’s agrarian movement in combating the outflow of labour from agriculture. The women’s organizations, having been politicized in this way and adopted by agrarian leaders after 1908, were to implement a new strategy for preventing the migration of rural population to cities. This is as a resulted of the partial support for Heinrich Sohnrey’s programme and his concept of improving the quality of life in rural areas. Elisabet Boehm, the founder of the associations, from the very beginning of their existence, sought to cooperate with agricultural organizations. She believed that this would be the only way for members to gain access to the expertise for implementing the main point of the association’s agenda, i.e. the professionalization of women’s work in rural areas. The article focuses on explaining the circumstances that led to the interest of the agrarians in the women’s agrarian movement and its inclusion in the reform programme for rural prosperity launched just before the war and showing that the cooperation was primarily aimed at using the associations to strengthen their influence in rural areas.

The study analyses the number of midwives in the counties of Eastern and Western Galicia in census years 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910, and the ratios per cadastral commune, 10,000 square kilometers, 10,000 civilians and 10,000 women in a county. The analysis was based on Austrian and Galician statistical reports. The results of the study confirmed that Eastern Galicia outnumbered Western Galicia in terms of midwives. However, it was in Western Galicia where the rate of growth was higher, and the effects of the 1910 collapse more moderate. This could have been due to an amendment to the 1897 midwifery regulations. The position of individual counties changed, depending on the year and the specific measure. In Eastern Galicia, Lisko county ranked the worst and Horodenka, Śniatyń, Tarnopol, Trembowla, and Brzozów counties ranked the best. In Western Galicia, Limanowa county ranked the worst, while Brzesko, Kraków, Łańcut, Wadowice, Przeworsk, and Podgórze counties ranked the best. There is a strong positive correlation between the rank and natural conditions (water, soil, climate), type of crops, agricultural development and processing, transport system (road and rail), population, and stimulating function of large urban centers. Favorable conditions were correlated with higher values in measures of the number of midwives.

In both World Wars, combatant nations, including the United States, Britain, and Germany, learned that inadequate or poorly-maintained footwear produced costly and preventable casualties from trench foot and frostbite. While provision of shoes and boots to troops were major issues in earlier conflicts, no nation before World War I had fully appreciated the significance of warm, dry, well-fitting socks to the effectiveness of soldiers in the field. The large numbers of trench foot casualties in World War I, especially among the French and British, convinced policymakers that this vital commodity must receive a higher priority in military production planning, but few nations in wartime could shift production to knitting mills rapidly enough to make a difference. Thus, in Britain and the U.S, the best policy option proved to be recruiting women and children civilians to knit socks by hand for the military in the first war, and for refugees, prisoners and civilians in the second. This paper discusses the economic and military importance of this effort, including the numbers of pairs produced, and the program’s role in supplementing industrial production. The production of this low-technology but crucial item of military apparel is typical of detail-oriented tasks performed by women under conditions of full mobilization for war, in that they have a high impact on battlefield and home front performance and morale, but very low visibility as significant contributions to national defense. Often, both during and after the emergency, these efforts are ridiculed as trivial and/or wasteful. Unlike women pilots or industrial workers, handcrafters of essential supplies are regarded as performing extensions of their domestic roles as makers and caretakers of clothing and food. This was especially true in the U.S. in and after World War II, a wealthy industrialized nation that took pride in its modern - and thoroughly masculinist - military industrial complex.

This paper aims to analyse the employment of women in banking during the Second Polish Republic (i.e. interwar Poland). The banking sector was small in terms of employment. The number of people associated with this sector was 18.1 thousand in 1921 and 31.2 thousand in 1931, which accounted for 0.5-0.6% of all professionally active workers outside the agricultural sector. The banking community was dominated by men, the number of women working in banks was about 6.1 thousand in 1921 and 8.5 thousand in 1931 (30% of all human resources). This paper presents the nature of jobs performed by women, their positions and earnings. The presentation takes a number of forms: according to bank types, groups of voivodeships, size of the town and according to headquarters and branches. In all cases, the activities and earnings of women and men were compared.

The text is devoted to women’s presence in the Polish higher education in 1918-2018. Its history is presented in chronological-thematic order, including information about the beginnings of women’s studies at universities as well as their basic political, economic and cultural conditioning. Although during the discussed period, basis of political system in Poland changed three times, there was a constant development of the size of higher education, as well as an increase of women’s participation among students and academic faculty. The beginnings were very modest. However, today women constitute already the majority of students of higher education and almost a half of academic employees. Women, during their fight for equality in access to studies and academic career, had to overcome many legal obstacles, also informal ones, resulting from vitality of the image of traditional social role of women. Even though, the formal equality was gradually earned, it is still more difficult for women than for men to undertake studies at some faculties, and to get higher degrees and academic positions as fast as men.

The first decade of the Polish People’s Republic (PPR) saw a radical increase in the number of workers employed in the industry. Many of the new workers were women, whose situation on the job market was much more dynamic than men’s. New staff was mainly recruited from the rural population. Workers were poorly educated and had little work experience, which begs a question regarding the economic rationale behind this process. Some of the new employees could actually be included in the category of “hidden unemployment”. Their marginal productivity equaled zero, which means that their work had no actual impact on the gross national income. Furthermore, such “unemployment at work” negatively impacts morale and work quality, leads to increased staff turnover, and essentially prevents workers from improving their financial situation. Considering the poorer socio-demographic characteristics of women compared to men, one can pose the thesis that the rate of needless employment was significantly higher among women than among men.

Women employed in State Agricultural Farms (SAF) were blue- and white-collar workers, the former group being more numerous. However, the blue-collar workers mainly worked seasonally, during the period of intensive field work. When it comes to fulltime work, it was usually related to animal production. The demand for this type of work decreased with the progress of mechanization. Meanwhile, the demand for white-collar workers, especially those with agricultural education and experience, increased. Since the 1960s, the SAFs increasingly employed women qualified in agronomy, animal production, and veterinary medicine. However, they were not always accepted in positions traditionally considered “masculine”. For most women, work in SAFs was not attractive due to difficult working conditions and low prestige. If a woman decided to work there, it was usually for economic reasons. Most women did not take up professional activity and performed the traditional roles of wives and mothers.

The present paper views globalisation and women’s work and exploitation in a micro enterprise in India, the beedi (indigenous cigarette) industry with a case study from one of the states in India. Rural occupational structures and employment patterns in India have undergone a transition in the last few decades due to globalisation. Newer forms of employment like construction work, domestic services and beedi making have become alternatives to agricultural labour for women. Beedi is an indigenous cigarette, in which tobacco is rolled in a tendu leaf and tied with a cotton thread. This is smaller and less expensive than a cigarette and in the popular imagination it stands for the working class. This work is done sitting at home and mostly women and girls do it. This is a very gendered industry, for only women and girls that too from low-income groups make beedis. There is a lot of exploitation in this industry and this has only increased with the advent of globalisation but this is generally ignored by data gathering systems, policy makers and administrators. There is an occupational health hazard too for many of these workers suffer from various health hazards not because they are smoking these beedis but because they are making them.

Women show greater and greater activity on the job market, they obtain better positions, salaries, etc. However, the statistics concerning their professional activity differ from those of men. We should take into consideration the fact that women are the ones who give birth to children and, in majority, take care of their upbringing, especially in the first years of child’s life. Policies of particular states are different in terms of the amount and availability of family benefits, and that can be reflected in women’s willingness to return to work.