ABSTRACT
To explore these issues, we will look at the behaviors and attitudes of women in Poland and Ukraine to discover what has meaning and what works for them. To examine the words and actions of the women in Poland and Ukraine whose actions we wish to interpret, we must look not only to the meanings given to these words and actions but also to their interrelationships with the political culture and historical context in which meaning is constructed and actions occur. We must be cognizant of Scott’s admonition that “experience is ... not the origin of our explanation, but that which we want to explain” (Scott 1992, 26).
