Izabela (Iza) Moszczeńska or Moszczeńska-Rzepecka (28 October 1864 – 20 March 1941) was a Polish feminist journalist, translator and suffragette. She was the first Polish author to advocate

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...

for both girls and boys.

Life

Iza Moszczeńska was born on the family estate in Rzeczyca,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

(now Rzeczyca,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) on 28 October 1864. She was mostly educated at home, only receiving two years of formal schooling, although she gained fluency in English, French and German in addition to Polish. Before 1890 she taught the local children and began writing articles for various newspapers and magazines. During this time she visited

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, the capital of Russian-controlled Congress Poland, to attend lectures at the Flying University ( pl, Uniwersytet Latający), a covert school for women who were forbidden to university by the Russians. Her father died in 1890 and the family estate had to be sold off so Moszczeńska and her mother moved to Warsaw where they started a secret girl's boarding school. She married Kazimierz Rzepecki, editor of the newspaper ''Great Poland Courier'' ( pl, Goniec Wielkopolski) in 1894 and moved to Prussian-controlled Poznan where she was co-editor of the newspaper. They moved to

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

, in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1897 where she wrote for the local newspapers before moving to Warsaw the following year. Her husband died in 1902 and Moszczeńska translated books by

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

and

Ellen Key Ellen Karolina Sofia Key (; 11 December 1849 – 25 April 1926) was a Swedish difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough movement. She was ...

in addition to writing articles that appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines such as ''

Życie ''Życie'' (, "Life") was an illustrated weekly established in 1897 and published in Kraków and Lwów in the Austrian partition of Poland. Founded by Ludwik Szczepański, with time it became one of the most popular Polish literary and artistic ...

''. She worked for the ''Warsaw Courier'' ( pl, Kurier Warszawski) from 1926 to 1939 and served on the

Warsaw City Council Warsaw City Council, officially the Council of the Capital City of Warsaw ( pl, Rada Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy) is a unicameral governing body of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The council was first created following the location of ...

from 1927 to 1934. After suffering two strokes in 1934 and 1937, she died in Warsaw on 20 March 1941.

Activities

While living in Poznan, Moszczeńska began participating in the activities of local women's organizations, much to the displeasure of her husband's family.Gawin, pp. 352–53

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moszczenska, Iza 1864 births 1941 deaths Polish feminists 20th-century Polish women writers 20th-century Polish writers Polish women's rights activists People from the German Empire Immigrants to Austria-Hungary