The first transsexual member of the Polish parliament will be sworn in today. Anna Grodzka represents the Palikot movement, a new, anti-clerical political force that scored a major surprise in this strongly Catholic nation by winning 10 percent of the vote in the October parliamentary elections and becoming the third-strongest force in the new parliament. Grodzka, 57, born as Krzysztof, underwent a sex-change procedure in 2010 and claims to be the world’s first transgender parliamentarian. Grodzka’s political rise is even more surprising given that she topped the party’s list in Krakow, a city renowned for its Catholic piety and for being the home of Pope John Paul II.

Anyone concerned about the prominence of women in Polish politics just has to glance at the election posters of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice Party, featuring seven attractive young female candidates that were intended to excite the youth vote ahead of the October 9 parliamentary elections. Despite the come-hither looks, the women at Public Affairs are not doing well.
Moreover, women are also sparse at the top in business. Among Poland’s listed companies, only 11 per cent of board members are women.

The Polish government's new commitment to gender equality is a triumph for the feminist movement's strategic change of focus.

For a good part of the last two decades, becoming a feminist was a sure way to make oneself ridiculous in Poland. You were viewed as a naive enthusiast of western ideas, supposedly irrelevant to Polish culture, or worse – a fossil from former times, a communist. Well, the days of feminist martyrdom are over: in the runup to Poland's presidency of the European Union, women's rights have become a serious and respectable topic of public debate.

Polish President Bronisław Komorowski signed a bill into law on Monday that sets a mandatory minimum quota for the number of women that must stand in political elections.

The proportion of women put forward for elections must now be 35 percent.