Izabela (Iza) Moszczeńska or Moszczeńska-Rzepecka (28 October 1864 – 20 March 1941) was a Polish

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

journalist, translator and

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

. 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 human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...

for both girls and boys.

Life

Iza Moszczeńska was born on the family estate in Rzeczyca,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

(now Rzeczyca,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) 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, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, the capital of Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

, to attend lectures at the

Flying University The Flying University (, less often translated as "Floating University") was an underground educational Betty Jean Lifton, ''The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak''p. 35 St. Martin's Press, 1997, enterprise Peter Brock, Joh ...

(), 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'' () in 1894 and moved to Prussian-controlled

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

where she was co-editor of the newspaper. They moved to

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in Eastern Europe. The Cr ...

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 and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

and

Ellen Key Ellen Karolina Sofia Key (; 11 December 1849 – 25 April 1926) was a Swedes, 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. S ...

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'' () from 1926 to 1939 and served on the

Warsaw City Council Warsaw City Council, officially the Council of the Capital City of Warsaw () is a unicameral governing body of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The council was first created following the location of Warsaw under the terms of the Magdebu ...

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

Activities

While living in Poznań, Moszczeńska began participating in the activities of local women's organizations, much to the displeasure of her husband's family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moszczenska, Iza 1864 births 1941 deaths People from Radziejów County Polish feminists 20th-century Polish women writers 20th-century Polish writers Polish women's rights activists 19th-century Prussian people Immigrants to Austria-Hungary