Difficult to assess what Polish women are really like. Most of my experiences were immigrant women living and working in Shropshire based in local factories.In the factory where I worked with many for about 5 years, they were very hard workers but lacked initiative.There were problems on a Monday morning with hangovers etc but not usually with the older women and there were problems with fighting over men ( not very attractive ones either!).On the positive side the women were cheerful and good fun, we laughed a lot and most women were fabulous bakers ( lovely cakes).Most women were able to work as a team which is important on a production line.
In my experience they were not interested in many things outside of the home or men, sometimes alcohol or make up.
They do, yes, expect to have a boyfriend/husband from 18 onwards
That sums up the attitude very succinctly, a man appeared to be more importantant than an education or anything else.
I didn't find that the women formed real friendships, the man came above all else, female 'friends' were always secondary even if the man was a very new one.
I also observed that the women would happily steal boyfriends from their 'friends' even husbands on occasion, there was no 'sisterhood' as such.
Non Polish women who dated Polish men were met with a great deal of hostility but it was okay for Polish women to date British men!
There was also a great deal of aggro if we hired black or Asian workers but that came from the men as well as the women.
Sometimes we did get ambitious, educated women working in the factory and they were real 'ladies', really nice women but not always popular with the others
but I couldn't work out why?
what I meant was that one can take certain strong characteristics, and present them as either positive or negative
Got to agree with you here, I don't know if the above experiences show positive or negative characteristcs in a woman, it depends what you want?
I have realised since reading PF that some of these characteristics are considered to be very positive by some men, especially putting a man first.
I suppose every individual values different qualities.
The genuinely pretty Polish girls are often overlooked.
Yes, girls I thought were beautiful looking were rarely the ones that the Polish women themselves rated highly.
I have visited Poland a few times and didn't find much difference but that could just reflect the families i stayed with.