We talk to Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska from the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University about whether women are appreciated, the significance of openness and tolerance, and what makes a terrorist.

We talked to Prof. Elżbieta Frąckowiak, Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, about relative sizes of “fishes” and “ponds” and the height of glass ceilings in the research world.

The presence of women in science, methods of supporting them in pursuing careers in science, and the Polish Young Academy’s plans are discussed by Dr. Anna Ajduk of the University of Warsaw, who is chair of the Polish Young Academy, and its three deputy chairs – Assoc. Prof. Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska from the PAS Institute of Slavic Studies, Assoc. Prof. Monika Kędra from the PAS Institute of Oceanology, and Assoc. Prof. Monika Kwoka of the Silesian University of Technology.

Prof. Maria Anna Ciemerych- -Litwinienko and Asst. Prof. Edyta Brzóska-Wójtowicz from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw discuss the position of women in science.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

The article discusses two works devoted to the women's education and upbringing, written in two different eras. Both books – the treaty by a Spanish secular humanist Juan Luis Vives (1492–1540) De institutione feminae christianae (Bruges 1524) dedicated to the Queen of England, Catherine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII, and her daughter Mary Tudor, and reference guide for women by a Spanish Jesuit Jorge Loring (1921–2013) Para salvarte. Compendio de las verdades fundamentales de la religión católica y normas para vivirlas (1st ed. 1952) – are advisory in nature. Both authors in a similar way define the role of women in a society. Formulating the recommendations for good Christian women, the authors resort to almost identical argumentation derived from the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers. They use similar rhetorical devices which are tailored to the current circumstances. Both authors refer to the same authority and show the same examples. The analysis of both works aims to show the immutability of rhetorical practices in the field of advice literature devoted to women.

Tunisian women folk songs have not found themselves among those subject matters enjoying a large amount of interest on the part of scholars, although attitudes in academic circles towards this area of folklore differ. Recently, however, a gradual increase of interest in folk songs can be noticed. Researchers have become aware of the importance of exploring folk songs both with respect to their contents and language. Hopefully this will lead to an increase in scholarly research in this field.

This article looks at the record of the activities of Poland’s Women’s League, first registered in 1945 under the name Social and Civic League of Women, presented in its two magazines, Kobieta Dzisiejsza [Today’s Woman] and Kobieta [Woman] published in 1946–1947 and 1947–1949 respectively. Their approach and choice of stories were to demonstrate the new organization’s concern with the lives of their readers. The magazines offered advice on how to cope with problems of everyday life, both at home and in the workplace. The broad range of themes was intended to appeal to a broad audience from all walks of life, including those that were not members of the new organization.

Struggles with femininity in Yiddish poetry.

In 2014 the Jagiellonian University celebrated its 650th anniversary. The description of the university’s history on the jubilee website, however, makes no mention of the first female students – even though it was the first Polish university to welcome women.

Sylwia Bedyńska, PhD, from the Institute of General Psychology at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, explains how negative stereotypes affect gifted women and their education choices.

Professor Krystyna Chojnicka from the Department of History of Political and Legal Doctrines, Jagiellonian University, talks about respect for female lawyers, the true role of a Byzantine princess, and how a theatrical performance sparked her interest in Russian legal doctrine.

The main purpose of the publication is to determine what knowledge was available to Polish women about the situation of women and feminist organizations in Europe and on other continents? What picture of the activities of these organizations was presented by the Women’s League press bodies? By using the classic method of analyzing and criticizing the content of the press, and as an auxiliary methodology of monographic research, it was possible to find answers to these and similar questions. Studies have shown, among others what role such organizations as the Democratic Committee of Bulgarian Women and the Democratic Union of Finnish Women played in the emancipation processes.

The present paper examines how, at a time of post EU-enlargement migration, female Polish migrants in the UK act within, despite and against the social structure of gender regimes in the origin and host societies and how female migrant agents are actively mediating structures in a quest to fulfil their as-pirations. Biographical narrative interviews conducted with female Polish migrant workers in the UK and semi-structured expert interviews provide the empirical data for the analysis of how employment trajectories in migration can challenge or reinforce gender roles, and of the role of female migrants’ agency. The paper shows how some women are limited in their opportunities by gender roles and fa-milial obligations, while others are able to progress professionally either by entering a typical ‘mi-grant’ sector, by undertaking UK education, or by starting their own businesses, challenging the gendered expectations they face. The paper thus contributes to the discussion on female migrants as disadvantaged migrant workers or as active agents of change.

Progress was an ideological concept in the political movements of the 19th century. This article asks how the women’s movements argued withthe concept of progress in a region which had been considered as backward since its establishment as the Habsburg part of partitioned Poland. The analysis focuses on how the political movements in 19th-century Galicia took advantage of the topoi of backwardness and progress, using them as rhetorical elements. Examples are taken from the Ukrainian women’s movement and women’s politics in the Zionist movement.

The aim of the article is to analyze literary images of women who had an impact on the history of Poland in the historical novel Gambit hetmański (2014), written by Robert Foryś. This type of fiction is a popular variety of the genre, its main theme is the conflict between political factions fighting for power. The leaders of the factions are women. The article focus on the answer to the question: whether Foryś creating scandalous portraits of women who reach for power is a threat or a chance for them to recall and preserve their presence in history.

Ruth Klüger, a writer of Jewish origin born in Austria in 1931, initiates discourse on ethical issues in the modern humanities by suggesting that women displayed greater morality in the context of the drama of the Shoah. This discourse requires emphasis, but also critical analysis. Referring to the philosophical and psychological as well as to the historical context, that is specifically to the events of World War II, I attempt to reflect on the women’s ethics of care and answer the question whether the indicated differences undermine the existence of a human morality shared by both sexes, that is whether morality depends on sex. The purpose of the interdisciplinary interpretations in the present analysis is to recognize the challenges and problems related to the condition of human dignity raised by Klüger in her argumentation.