Zofia Moraczewska, née Gostkowska (4 July 1873 – 16 November 1958) was a Polish politician and

women's rights activist Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

Life

Zofia Moraczewska was born of 4 July 1873 in

Czernowitz Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the up ...

, Duchy of Bukovina,

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now Chernivtsi,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

) and graduated from the Teacher's Seminary in

Lemberg 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 ...

, the capital of 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 ...

in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine), in 1893. She married Jędrzej Moraczewski three years later and joined the Social Democratic Party of Galicia ( pl, Galicyjska Partia Socjaldemokratyczna (GPS) or pl, Socjaldemokratyczna Partia Galicji) that same year. They had four children between 1901 and 1907, although the youngest did not survive infancy. Her husband was elected to the

House of Deputies The House of Deputies is one of the legislative houses of the bicameral General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The other is the House of Bishops. Membership Each diocese of the Episcopal Church, as well as t ...

of the Imperial Council in 1907, representing Stryj (now Stryi, Ukraine), and became the first Prime Minister of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

for several months in 1918–19. Moraczewska was elected a member of the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

and was an editor for the ''Voice of Women'' ( pl, Głos Kobiet), the official newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party's (the renamed GPS) Women's Department from 1919 to 1927. One of her sons died in 1920 during the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...

, her husband in 1944 and her two surviving children were killed in the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

during World War II. She died on 16 November 1958 in her home in

Sulejówek Sulejówek is a town in Poland, about 18 km east of Warsaw city centre and part of its metropolitan area. It is located in Masovian Voivodeship, in Mińsk County. Its population numbers 19323 (2011). The town is well known in Poland as t ...

Activities

Once the couple settled in Stryj, Moraczewska founded the Women's Association ( pl, Związek Kobiet), which started a school for working women and several

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

. She joined the Women's League of Silezia and Galicia ( pl, Liga Kobiet Galicji i Śląska) in 1915, after the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

.Durfat, pp. 348–49

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moraczewska, Zofia 1873 births 1958 deaths Polish women's rights activists Politicians from Chernivtsi People from the Duchy of Bukovina Polish Austro-Hungarians Polish socialist feminists 20th-century Polish women politicians Members of the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government politicians Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta