In the past, the exclusion of women from the election had the sociological and cultural background. Woman’s status was derived from the status of her husband. The creation of mass parties at the end of the XIXth century had turned women into attractive potential voters. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century in Polish territories, under foreign partitions, the feminist movement was just beginning. That was because the essential issue for all Polish people: both men and women, was the regaining of the independence. Polish women undertook activity in all the countries, which annexed parts of Poland, but the character and intensity of this activity depended on the character of the regime of the occupant. The Decree of the State on the electoral law, adopted on 26 November 1918, established universal suffrage, without distinction of the sexes. Granting women unconditionally full electoral rights: active and passive (different than in other countries, when women first obtained the right to vote and later – usually after years – the right to stand for election) under the mentioned Decree in 1918, was certainly a defining and monumental historical moment. Nowadays, other factors are taken into account in deciding about equality laws: underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in politics and gender gaps, which still exist.

The Use of Censuses in Elections to Constitutive Bodies of Local Government Units

The basic issue when determining the principle of universal suffrage is to indicate the group of people who shall have the right to vote. However, it may be restricted by suffrage censuses. The 21st century brought the significant challenges in determining entities that can benefit from the electoral rights, also in the elections to constitutive entities of local government units. It should be remembered that the world is still subject to the numerous processes of change. Therefore, the electoral law cannot be indifferent to it but should be adjusted by the legislator to the changing conditions in which given individuals function. The author of this study has analyzed existing legal solutions and is trying to answer the question of whether current regulations can be considered optimal, or whether there is a need for a new definition of constraints on electoral law, in the context of globalization processes that result in much more frequent and easier movement of people, and associated with this mixing of citizens of individual countries, or residents of the local government units of territorial units.