PŁEĆ SPOŁECZNO-KULTUROWA JAKO KATEGORIA RÓŻNICUJĄCA W MIGRACYJNYCH ORGANIZACJACH RELIGIJNYCH
GENDER AS A DIFFERENTIATING CATEGORY IN MIGRANT RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to analyze the patterns of social practices of women and men in the Polish migratory religious organizations of the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. Polish Catholic Missions (PCM) in England, Belgium and Sweden. We consider them as isomorphic, i.e. dependent on the social environment and prone to changes stemming from the context in which they function. PCMs function in migrant societies and fulfil religious, social and cultural functions for Poles. Using qualitative methodology of content analysis of individual and collective in-depth interviews conducted with 96 people – lay, consecrated, and ordained men and women, active in PCM structures – we reconstruct the three main gender patterns (re)produced in social practices within these organizations. Among them, we recognize traditional patterns of femininity and masculinity, which are essentialistic and homogeneous within the dichotomous division. We also distinguish practices of emancipating femininity, paying particular attention to the role of the organizational environment of the host country of migrants in the production of egalitarian gender patterns. Finally, we point to the practices of religious men, which we call retraditionalization, directed at the restitution of hegemonic masculinity.

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