Through Words and Deeds by John Bukowczyk

Author:John Bukowczyk [Bukowczyk, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780252053146
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

1. Głos Polek [Voice of the Polish Woman], I (July 1902) p. 7. “Polonia” in this essay refers to a concentration of Poles outside the homeland, with further definition provided by context,

2. In the categories defined by N. Cott, Polonian women partook of the first (social concern, drawing from the allegedly special caring talents of women) and the second (equal rights), but did not press for the radical third (“emancipation” from conventions enforced by law and custom). Their ethnic status largely confirmed their demands to the Polish immigrant group; thus “civic” rights were essentially those permitting equal participation in the organized life of Polonia. Nancy Cott, The Grounding of American Feminism (New Haven, 1987), p. 16.

3. lnformation from prewar marriage records from the large Cleveland parish of St. John Cantius showed that almost two-thirds of women married at 20 or less, with four-fifths of the brides 22 or younger. There is no reason to see this as atypical. William J. Galush, “Forming Polonia: A Study of Four Polish-American Communities, 1890–1940” (University of Minnesota: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, 1975), p. 109. Fertility was high, with an average of over 5 children per family, compared to a U.S. average of 3.4 in 1910. Ibid., pp. 110–111.

A broad survey of male Polonian occupational structure c. 1900 is by Krzysztof Groniowski, “Struktura społeczna-zawodowa Polonii amerykanskiej” [“The Social and Occupational Structure of American Polonia”] in Hieronim Kubiak (ed.), Polonia amerykańska:przeszłość i współczesność [American Polonia: Past and Present] (Warsaw, 1988), esp. pp. 100–107. For more extensive studies of major localities, see John Bodnar, Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900–1960 (Urbana, IL, 1982), p. 64; Caroline Golab, Immigrant Destinations, (Philadelphia, 1977), p. 103 for Philadelphia; Galosh, “Forming Polonia,” p. 115 for Cleveland, Minneapolis and Utica, N.Y.

4. Doris Weatherford, Foreign and Female: Immigrant Women in America, 1840–1930 (New York, 1986), pp. 106–107, 120–123.

5. Information on Polish economic activity is scanty. Individuals such as John Smulski (banker) and Peter Kiolbasa (notary) were major community figures in early Chicago Polonia, as were the saloonkeepers, grocers and other petty entrepreneurs out of scale to their numbers. Polonian communities evolved a middle and upper ethclass which had a role and status disproportionate to its economic scale as measured by the general society. Yet businesses such as saloons and other petty entrepreneurial activities were often short-lived. Their significance is as much evidence of dynamism and assertiveness as it is actual higher income. Edward Kantowicz, Polish American Politics in Chicago, 1880–1940 (Chicago, 1975) pp. 45–46, 60–64; Groniowski, “Struktura,” p. 101.

For a discussion of the relationship of ethnicity and class (ethclass), see Milton Gordon, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins (New York, 1964), pp. 51–54.

In terms of marriage patterns, the female physicians in Chicago seem to be an example of those who married late or not at all. In his stimulating study of American feminism, William O’Neill notes that many leaders were dilatory in marrying, more prone to divorce and had fewer children. See William O’Neill, Everyone Was Brave (New York, 1969, 1976) p.

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