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The aim of this dissertation is to highlight the discourses surrounding the creation of gender in relation to a number of young, well-educated city women in Poland in the early 21^st century. It is my intention to show which “ways of being a woman” that are culturally feasible in Poland in a time of transition – politically, economically, and socially. The study is based on interviews and field notes from a half-year field project in Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia in 2001.

The first chapter discusses theoretical and methodological issues and the second introduces the main themes by analysing a number of essays where Polish students are discussing feminism and women’s situation in Poland and Sweden. Chapter three to six analyses the interviews and other fieldwork material. The courtliness and daily door-opening procedures, which several of the participants in the study regard as typically Polish, are discussed in chapter three. In chapter four, connecting courtliness to issues of love and sexuality deepens this discussion. In chapter five gender equality and feminism is in focus, and in chapter six this discussion is connected to the young women’s ideas of future work and family life. The last chapter concludes and continues the analysis by introducing the concepts of variants and variant-making as a promising way of discussing new identities, institutions and structures in post-socialist and similar settings.

The creation of identity appears as a highly intersectional activity in the study. Gender, class, generation, sexuality, nationality, place of residence (city/countryside) are important elements in the young women’s creation of themselves as individuals. The different processes of democratisation, adapting to the EU, privatisation etc., as well as current ideas such as new liberalism, Catholicism and femininity are central to what is happening in Poland today. All these aspects interact in the construction of the identities of the young women.