Sytuacja kobiet romskich w Polsce i na Słowacji z punktu widzenia romskich aktywistek
The situation of Roma women in Poland and Slovakia according to the Roma women’s activists

Preliminary results of a pilot study

Summary/Abstract: The article is based on the preliminary results of the research project “Women in Roma political movement and NGO sector. Pilot study of Poland and Slovakia.” It contributes to the discussion which approach to Roma mobilization is more effi¬cient: one that assumes more or less homogeneous nature of Romani communities and treats their problems in a holistic, culturally-determined way, or one that pre-fers a diversified, socio-economic perspective and aims at solutions to particular groups of problems (respectively: to the problems of particular groups). The interviews with the female Roma activists from Poland (belonging to Polska Roma and Carpathian Roma groups) and Slovakia present an interesting material regarding the issues of education of the Roma women, discrimination they experience (multiple and intersectional, among Roma and non-Roma), patriarchy, attitudes to women’s organizational activity, and the ways Roma women may seek assistance, especially regarding the matters of sexual life. The results indicate that women who belong to culturally different groups (that is those who live according to romanipen and those, who do not) may have similar thoughts regarding their situation while women who belong to culturally similar groups may significantly differ. This means that it is not “Roma culture” that determines the situation of women in Roma communities but rather the socio-economic issues and patriarchal cultural features that Roma communities share with their non-Roma environment.

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