Impoverished rural women in the eyes of the Society

Abstract

As research increasingly indicates, gender is an important factor that influences the whole experience of living in poverty, including both the causes and the means of dealing with this difficult situation. This is largely due to certain definitions and ideas, in present discourse, with regard to the proper or desirable social practices assigned to the women affected by poverty. The phenomenon described above involves also social norms describing proper behaviour of rural women. The significance of discourse is huge in this context – in other words, the images, concepts and ideas operating there, usually endowed with axiological qualities, influence the social perception of a particular fragment of reality and attitude towards it in a significant manner. The text describes social images and concepts regarding rural women affected by poverty present in social discourse, referring to data acquired (among other) in “The Discourses of Poverty and Social Exclusion” research project („Dyskursy ubóstwa i wykluczenia społecznego”). This article investigates the manner of presentation of the above in this discourse, focusing on the qualities attributed to the women, occurring in this context.