Budzynska-Tylicka, Justyna (1876–1936)

Polish physician, Socialist activist and birth-control pioneer. Born in 1876 in Lomza; died in Warsaw on June 8, 1936.

Born in the town of Lomza, Justyna Budzynska-Tylicka grew up in an area of Poland under Russian occupation. Repression of Polish national aspirations and culture by the Russian authorities only strengthened the determination of the Polish intellectuals to restore Poland as a free and sovereign state. Exposed to both nationalist and Marxist ideals in her youth, Justyna studied medicine in order to serve the poor peasantry of her district. The emergence of an industrial working class also dramatized the need for radical social reforms. Convinced that the achievement of national freedom alone would not be sufficient to raise the living standards of the masses, Budzynska-Tylicka became a militant Marxist, joining the Polish Socialist Party.

A feminist as well as a Socialist, she believed that women had to have full control over their reproductive destinies in order to be genuinely free. Accordingly, she advocated birth control, a position that placed her in conflict with both the Roman Catholic Church and a government that did not permit distribution of contraceptive information. Despite this formidable opposition, Budzynska-Tylicka refused to bow to religious or secular pressures, engaging in spirited debates with those who disagreed with her. A physician to the poor, she believed that only education would change the attitudes of women still strongly influenced by old traditions and the teachings of a patriarchal and ultra-conservative clergy. Her tireless work on behalf of the poor brought her to the attention of the leadership of the Socialist Party, and from 1931 through 1934 she served on the party's national council. An internationalist who was convinced that the aspirations of women throughout the world were morally and ideologically linked, she was for many years an active member of the Socialist Women's International. Justyna Budzynska-Tylicka died in Warsaw on June 8, 1936.

sources:

"Budzynska-Tylicka, Justyna," Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1963, vol. 2, p. 201.

John Haag , Associate Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia