Women managers of co-operative shops in Poland during the communist period

Ewa Bogacz-Wojtanowska, Anna Góral and Sylwia Wrona

Chapter 15 in Feminist Perspectives in Business Studies, 2025, pp 334-353 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: For years, women managers in organizations have been an important point of academic research in Anglo-Saxon countries. Meanwhile, the situation of women managers in Central Eastern European countries, who have functioned under a different social and economic system for over 40 years – socialism – was and remains relatively unknown. The professional integration of women, introduced as part of the state policy counteracting social inequalities, was one of the characteristics of that time. Our objective was to understand and explain, from a contemporary point of view, the organizational role of women working in co-operatives – common organizations during the communist period – mainly taking into account the functions and dysfunctions of managerial positions. Our female interviewees’ impressions, opinions, and assessments constitute descriptions subjected to reinterpretation and marked by experience from the post-communist period. For this research, we used a narrative approach in qualitative research. We collected stories from 14 women managers of co-operative shops in the period between 1949 and 1989. While analysing the research material, we reached for the prism of paradox, which allowed us to understand the challenges that our subjects had to face, particularly their reaction to often irrational or absurd situations in their environment. Our research revealed that, albeit being initially unaware, our female interviewees were successful in their positions thanks to their adeptness, akin to modern managers, at navigating diverse contexts and resolving paradoxes. Only after the political transformation did they become conscious of the challenges and contradictions they had struggled with.

Keywords: Women managers; Co-operative shops in Poland; Management in socialism; Bibliographical research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035335992
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