Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz (Institute of Literary Research, PAS) is a cultural historian interested in women’s history in post-1945 Poland.Piotr Perkowski (University of Gdańsk) is a social historian, specializing in Poland’s social and economic history after 1945.Małgorzata Fidelis (University of Illinois Chicago) is a social and cultural historian, focused on everyday life and the individual-state relationship in post-1945 Eastern Europe.Barbara Klich-Kluczewska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) is a cultural historian, focused on gender history, history of sexuality, family and childhood.

• Introduction to the English-Language Edition Chapter 1. The Road to Power? Women in Politics Chapter 2. Equal Rights or Conservative Modernity? Women and Work Chapter 3. The Modern Housewife: Woman in the Household Chapter 4. “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl”: Upbringing, Coming-of-Age, and Education Chapter 5. Women and the Family Chapter 6. Objects of Biopolitics? Health, Reproduction, and Violence Chapter 7. Beautiful and Resourceful: Beauty Culture and the Body Conclusion Bibliography Index