Matka Polka w defensywie? Przemiany mitu i jego wpływ na macierzyństwo polskich kobiet

This paper is an attempt to present the origins, socio-cultural content and the evolution of the myth of the Polish Mother, which is lodged in the Polish national consciousness. The author tries to show how this myth was created, what functions it has fulfilled and what forms it has taken in light of the changing historical and social circumstances, from the moment Poland lost independence, through the period of real socialism, until the present day. This essay examines the impact of this myth on the lives of real women and their perception of motherhood. The author compares and confronts the results of the latest Polish sociological studies of family life and its transformation with the transformation of value systems and theories about the particulars of life in the period of postmodernity to ask whether it is high time to bring down the myth of the Polish Mother on the grounds that it does not apply to the conditions of today’s world of individuality, self-realization and freedom, or whether to accept the fact that Poles still have a traditional attitude towards motherhood and thus the myth of the Polish Mother is still valid.