Born Eugenia Zawodzińska in Szczuczyn in 1881, she pursued her education at the Plock Gymnasium before enrolling in commercial courses and later studying at the Flying University in Warsaw. At the beginning of her professional life, she worked as a clerk in the bookselling industry and later as a leading commercial representative in an electrotechnical company. These experiences laid the foundation for her activism in trade unions, where she fought for the rights of white-collar workers, particularly women clerks, who were often overlooked in discussions about labour rights.

Eugenia Waśniewska in 1929 (Source: NAC)

Waśniewska’s political engagement intensified during and after World War I. She became vice chair of the Union of Women’s Associations and later chaired the Council of Labour Associations in Warsaw from 1915 to 1918. When Poland regained independence, she took on leadership roles in organizations advocating for women’s rights. Throughout the entire interwar period, Waśniewska was the vice president of the Political Club of Progressive Women, an association that united many prominent middle- and upper-class women activists. Her participation in the women’s movement was not limited to Poland: In 1923, for example, she participated in the International Congress of the Little Entente of Women in Bucharest.

Waśniewska’s influence in national politics grew when she was elected a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) in 1928, a position she held until 1935. During her tenure, she served on committees dedicated to social welfare and labour protection.

A group of female members of the Sejm, 1930 (Waśniewska closest to the camera) (Source: NAC)

Beyond national politics, Waśniewska was a notable figure in Poland’s cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO). Between 1927 and 1937, she was part of the Polish delegations to the International Labour Conferences (ILC). An advocate for the equal pay principle, during the eleventh session of the ILC in 1928 she argued that the minimum wage issue was inextricably connected with gender equality. Combining gender equality with class-based politics, she stressed that a minimum wage must ensure “a certain level of life, and it must provide for equal wages for men and women”.

During the fifteenth session of the ILC in 1931, Waśniewska urged the International Labour Office to conduct more extensive studies on women’s participation in the workforce. Once the ILO created the Correspondence Committee on Women’s Work in 1932, she advocated for its stronger institutional role and the greater hands-on participation of women labour experts in the work of the ILO. Her persistence often clashed with the ILO’s procedural norms, but she still attempted to establish a Polish expert committee (together with the two other Polish members, Halina Krahelska and Dr. Zofia Garlicka) within the Correspondence Committee. Although this initiative did not generate institutional change within the ILO, Waśniewska’s efforts reflected her commitment to calling attention to women’s issues within wider labour-related discussions.

Tragically, Waśniewska’s life was cut short during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Her activism was marked by a pragmatic approach that combined political engagement, research, and grassroots organization to drive change in labour policies. Today, she is remembered as one of Poland’s first women members of Parliament, but during her life, she was also known as a vocal labour and women’s rights activist, visible on both the national and international stage.