Maria Moczydłowska

Maria Moczydłowska (4 October 1886 – 26 April 1969)

She was a Polish United Party (PZL) candidate in Częstochowa in the 1919 parliamentary elections and was one of five women elected. Moczydłowska subsequently became the first woman to speak in a debate in the Legislative Sejm. After the PZL split in July 1919, she became a member of the National People's Union (NZL) and served as secretary of the party's parliamentary faction. During the term of the Sejm, she was a member of the Education, Labour Protection and Social Welfare committees. On several occasions she absented herself from the Sejm to avoid having to vote against measures she supported but the NZL opposed; in July 1919 she 'fainted' during a debate on land reform and left the chamber; the bill passed by one vote. During a 1921 debate on removing virilists from the Senate, she left to 'make a phone call'; the legislation was passed by three votes.

After losing her bid for re-election in 1922 as a Polish Centre candidate, she helped organise Polish schools in France and then joined the Warsaw School Board, where she worked in the adult education department. She died in Sopot in 1969.