The effects of the European Social Fund Programme for women in rural Poland

This research deals with the implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) in Poland and its impact on women living in rural areas. Our aim is to study the concrete action of the European Union at the local level in the field of employment and social integration; to identify the specific aspects of Polish rural areasand rural women's situation to which ESF programs are confronted; to analyze the way the different actors mobilize for implementing these programs, how female beneficiaries react to them and what the effects are. Our theoretical field is the Europeanization of public policy,who is considered here as an adjustmentprocess of institutions, ideas and interests, expressed at a regional and sub-regional level and through actors' interactions. Weadd a micro-sociological dimension toour work, in order to question the limits of this process. Webegin with a historical return to understand thespecificity of the Polish case regarding the situation of women, rural areas, the labormarket and the territorial balance; then we developa comparative approach between three Polish regions presenting different economic, social and rural backgrounds: Podkarpackie, a region locatedin the southeast of the country, ódzkie, in the center, and Zachodniopomorskie, in the northwest.