Labour market policy and women in Poland: justified nostalgia for socialism or reasonable hopes of return to Europe?

The paper tackles the issue of the European Employment Strategy and its application in a New Member State - Poland. The main focus is on the influence of the EU level employment policy coordination on the national welfare state and its labor market policy making relevant to the employment of women. Furthermore, current labor market policy and politics are related to the socialist state's action toward women's employment. Specifically, three stages of Poland's concern with labor market policy and its effect on equal opportunities for women are discussed: the socialist command economy, the post 1989 transformation period, and the accession to the EU phase culminating in the drafting of the first National Action Plan for Employment. The paper argues that the political, economic and social transformations have changed the nature of politics and labor market policy making in Poland: from the socialist state's declared commitment to equality between men and women, through the post transformation disregard for the case, to the response of the current administration to European calls for greater gender equality and the attainment of social inclusion