Women in Hungary in Times
of Social and Cultural Transition

Éva Thun

The decade of economic and political-social transition in Central Eastern Europe has had modest success in the development of a market economy and in the harmonization of political structures and legal frame-works with those of the European Union (EU). A number of issues, however, remain unaddressed; issues which concern civil society and local cultural traditions as well as individual and collective needs and responsibilities.

Hungarian citizens are well informed about the global economy and politics. When it comes to knowledge of such matters as civic participation in political processes, social and cultural discourses about human rights - and their relevance to particular social groups, such as ethnic or religious groups and women or others experiencing poverty - Hungarian society displays definite shortcomings. The causes of this lack of social sensitivity, this paucity of public discourse about the emerging social, political and cultural values of the transition era, are not readily evident and should be investigated. In particular, the peculiarities of the social processes involved in the transition from communist rule to the new pluralism and the market economy should be analyzed, because they seem to gravitate towards the exclusion of women from politics and work opportunities, and the silencing of women by drawing on outdated arguments derived from patriarchal traditions. It seems somewhat ironic that while the values of a consumer society and popular culture are being promoted in Hungary, women's concerns are not being addressed.

Besides tracing post-1989 attitudes toward women's roles in society, this paper aims to offer some explanations of why women's concerns are not in the forefront of Hungarian public consciousness, and to throw some light on the factors that contribute to negative attitudes to women's issues in this era of political and social transformation. This paper will also suggest that in order to begin the process of remedying these deficiencies and shortcomings, Hungarian society - instead of looking entirely to Western European and North American models for solutions - should try to reclaim the rich legacy of Hungarian feminism, a feminism that has grown out of national roots and traditions.

The Political Climate - Political Players/Actors

Conservatism and Blaming the Past

It is still not a widely known fact that Hungary is a signatory to the UN declarations which ban discrimination against women in all areas of life. Despite the existence of this international obligation on the part of the Hungarian state, the prevailing neo-conservative attitudes towards women's issues tend to reinforce the concepts of the patriarchal social and cultural order and do little to end such discrimination. The social status of women, as defined during the period of state socialism and reinforced by the political ideologies of those times, is now seen as part of a negative and unusable discourse. This definition of women's status and role in society included the cultivation of the image of women as strong individuals, a view not foreign to traditional Hungarian culture. In some contrast to the attitudes of the era of state socialism, the newly emerging cultural and social views encourage women to assume their traditional or "natural" role in society and restrict their activities to the home. This ideology is promoted in the argument that women's participation in the workforce and in the public sphere in the state socialist period was altogether wrong. Supposedly, women had been misled and forced to do things which did not naturally fit their character. As a consequence, those women who want to enter men's spaces - that is assume roles in the public sphere - are vehemently criticized, as Mária Neményi has pointed out:

As a rule, women public actors and politicians are treated differently from men. Without exception, women are asked about their family and about the "problem" of being able to fulfil all the female roles, the role of a wife, and housewife - together with their unconventional public responsibilities.1

Both politicians and bureaucrats tend to treat women as beings who need patronizing, as citizens who do not have the capacity to make their own decisions. This practice, along with the attempts to discredit the pre-1989 ideological stand on women, persuades many of public leaders to support the traditional patriarchal value system. Examples of this tendency were exhibited in the election campaign of the spring of 1998.

The Cultural Myth of Women's Supportive Role

In a leaflet in many ways typical of the times, a woman candidate for Parliament introduced herself by telling the prospective voters about her husband and children. Only at the end of the leaflet were we informed about her public activities and her political program. In the same campaign some male politicians attempted to attract women voters by using their wives as mediums to communicate their messages to women. These wives suggest that the task of women is to secure a steady, amicable and comfortable background for the men who are engaged in the demanding work of building a new society. For example, candidate György Csóti's wife distributed the following letter during the election campaign of the spring of 1998:

Dear Madam,
I would like to tell you about György Csóti, whom I have known for decades and whom I love. The actors of public life are far away from the events of everyday life; this is why we do not know much about politicians, though we entrust them with important tasks... I think I will be able to fill in this gap when I share my personal opinion with you, share what I know about my husband, about the candidate of this constituency.
Gyuri is a polite and considerate husband, and a supportive father. He has never abandoned me in the task of bringing up our daughter. He said if he had not shared the responsibilities of her education he would have robbed himself of experiencing fatherhood.... Sometimes I worry about him and I wonder how I could assist him. Many times it is enough help that I just listen to what he has to say, or I just cook his favourite meal for supper....
Your friend, Kati Csóti.2

It is also a common belief nowadays in Hungary that those who shape public life are above the mundane, "everyday life." This attitude encourages an atmosphere in which citizens are "grateful" to the politicians for their "sacrifices" for society, and because in most cases these politicians are men, they have to be looked upon by women with gratitude and respect.

Representation and Administrative Methods

Women politicians are few in number, and women's issues are silenced in manipulative ways in the political arena of Hungary. Katalin Lévai, the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, pointed out that during the general election campaign of 1998 political parties failed to consider the different voting behaviours of women. Instead of doing so, however, the political parties obfuscated women's issues using stereotypical and emotional slogans.3 There were great many allusions to women's responsibilities in the family, and attention to women has been paid by such empty gestures as handing out flowers to women in the streets on Mother's Day or Women's Day.

Since the power of civic organizations in post-1989 Hungary is limited, women's issues are raised by members of the country's political and bureaucratic elites. The solutions to women's problems are also offered by the same people, invariably without inviting wider public discussion and seeking public approval. For example, prostitution is dealt with as a legal and administrative issue without reference to the underlying social and cultural factors. These administrative strategies create the illusion that the mere fact that a topic has been aired in the media (e.g. discussed in a roundtable on TV) means that it can be considered "solved" for good. Even persistent issues such as abortion or violence against women are dealt with in this manner. Unfortunately, there seems to be no need voiced for serious public discussion of social issues.

Public Debate on Political Issues

In today's Hungary no one seems to question the omnipotent position of high politics and the hegemony of traditional cultural myths. There is no effective forum for meaningful public debates, and for the presentation of different views and opinions. The various interest and social groups do not enter into dialogue with each other, they do not communicate with each other. They do not even consider each other's views or allow their arguments to be weighed against each other. The apathy of citizens towards issues of personal opportunity and social justice has also contributed to the emergence of a political atmosphere that does not favour the worthwhile public discussion of women's concerns.

There is another factor which should be focused on when evaluating the preconditions for a meaningful public debate. This factor is the general lack of knowledge of prevailing social conditions in Hungary. This shortcoming results from the fact that there is very little research done in the areas of social welfare, particularly in the areas of women's issues. Statistics that are available to researchers are often incomplete or even biased, and the products of reliable social science research are missing. It is not surprising under the circumstances that the participants in public discussions, when arguing for their point of view, have to rely on anecdotal evidence or personal experiences.

In addition to the problems posed by the lack of tolerance and lack of opportunity for meaningful public debate, Hungarian society is plagued by other shortcomings. Most important among these are the civic leaders' lack of communication skills and their ignorance of the strategies of conflict resolution. Self-confidence, personal responsibility, and the quality of public appearance are things which need to be developed within civic groups, including women's organizations.

The Office of Equal Opportunity

One year after the women's World Conference in Beijing, the Office of Women's Affairs' was established within Hungary's Ministry of Labour. Later the name of this bureau was changed to "Office of Equal Opportunity." The so-called "Mission Statement" of this office describes how the government of the times described its own approach to women's issues:

The Government sees the civic organizations as partners, not only as mere tools for the realization of their political intensions. The Government invites the civic organizations to take part in the forming of political life and in the identification process of social problems and in finding the solutions. The representatives of the civic organizations set up a Civic Forum initiated by the Office, which offers the opportunity for all the organizations to inform the other groups about their goals and objectives and activities and for networking. A Working Group has been created with the purpose of discussing the most burning issues, such as discrimination against women at work, violence against women, prostitution, etc. The Working Group, with the assistance of inside and outside experts, will develop projects for the practical solutions of the given problems. In this way, the opportunity for constructive co-operation is created, which offers further perspectives for women's organizations.4

The Mission Statement of the Office of Equal Opportunity also recognizes the issue of discrimination, which is of course also underlined in such UN documents as the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In the Hungary of the times however, at the highest level of politics such issues were only dealt with superficially and only in an administrative fashion.

The administrative power of state organizations, despite the requirements of international laws, did little to improve the state of affairs concerning women's issues. The failure of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) to achieve its goals is clearly reflected in the personal career of its director, Katalin Lévai. She was gradually marginalized as a civic leader. The government substantially reduced the OEO's scope of activities and thereby curtailed her role as Hungary's chief spokesperson on women's issues. The OEO assumed a "token" role of representing women's interests. Lévai's public activities were limited to publishing articles in the daily papers on women's issues as a sociologist; in effect she was banned from functioning as a lobbyist or political activist. The department's main goal of facilitating the dialogue between individual citizens and civic organizations on the one hand, and the country's political elite on the other, was forgotten.

Despite its marginalized position, the OEO has gained a measure of public approval. One of its successful actions was a lawsuit targeting discrimination against women in employment. Another high-profile OEO project was the compilation of life histories of women who had been victims of discrimination. Andrea Rimay described how the OEO's action had prompted her to go public with her story:

After a long search the Office of Equal Opportunity had reached me. I felt I had to act on what happened to me. The main motivating factors for my choice to go public were the practices of restricting women's work opportunities. I am aware that discrimination will never cease to exist, but I believe that it can be alleviated. Of course I am not talking about women driving tractors, since the biological differences between men and women cannot be disputed. Someone, however, has to set a precedent so that women should not be stopped in achieving their potential.5

The Office of Equal Opportunity, however, never addressed such issues as abortion, violence against women, and prostitution, in spite of the fact that these issues were touched upon in the press either as a result of actual incidents or because of the ongoing process of harmonizing Hungary's laws with international and EU legislation. The issues mentioned above were discussed by the Constitutional Court of Law, with the intent of recommending draft legislation to Parliament, but Hungary's parliamentarians have yet to take effective action.

Lack of Civic Society

In post-1989 Hungary, civic society and civic activism, as they are understood in Western democracies, hardly exist. Civic organizations exist, but they are often severely criticized and their work is hindered. The governments give them neither encouragement nor adequate funding. Neither the state nor private persons and entrepreneurs with substantial financial means acknowledge their valuable work. Alas, in today's Hungary charity is interpreted as giving a few pennies to the people begging in the streets. Financial support for social and civic purposes is an unknown act of benevolence. Hungarian society prefers to support soccer teams and certain TV programs. Those who possess the financial means of supporting civic organizations usually consider the provision of a social safety net for the masses the sole responsibility of the state. These people do not acknowledge any public responsibilities, and some of them hold the view that people should be able to prosper at the expense of others or by cheating the state. Most members of Hungary's economic elite regard those who choose to participate in civic work either as benevolent idealists or aggressive eccentrics. These people see civic activists as people who lack the courage or the talent to utilize Hungary's chaotic state of legislation for their own purposes in order to become rich. In such circumstances civic groups are tolerated only as long as they do not interfere with the activities of the rich and powerful. The moment they voice their opinions about individual and collective responsibilities of citizens, they are attacked because they are seen as interfering with "private interests."

Civic Organizations - Women's Organizations

Civic organizations, especially women's organizations, face enormous difficulties in acting on their convictions. Despite the difficulties which followed the political turnaround of 1989, a great number of women's groups have emerged. Typically, their objectives are "special interest" oriented. These groups are rarely concerned with "universal" women's issues. Unlike women's movements in the West, the Hungarian women's organizations came into existence because of private/personal motives of their participants. These groups serve more as sheltered outlets for women's activities, than as forums for political actions. Their existence in part compensates for the fact that, after the political transformation of 1989, women (and also men) suddenly lost the protection of the "social umbrella" which guaranteed the welfare services of the state. It should be kept in mind, however, that in 1989 women had lost more then men: they lost the ideological support that state socialism had extended to them.

One might suppose that the newly formed women's groups would achieve some influence in post-1989 Hungary's political decision-making processes. However, most of the women's groups have failed to realize that they must insist that women's issues remain prominent in political, social and cultural discussions, otherwise the general public will deem their activities ineffective and therefore of little value.

The Odds Against a Women's Movement

Political instability in post-1989 Hungary and the paucity of strong civic organizations are significant discouraging factors. It is difficult for groups of concerned citizens to develop a course of action when the rules of the game are constantly changing. Movements with a social agenda, further-more, are viewed unfavourably by the general public. Such movements, and their associated ideologies, are deemed as posing a threat to those individuals who are struggling to define their own personal identities. These persons regard the function of any socio-political movement, as yet another instance of socio-political "brainwashing." In addition to this general hostility to movements with a social purpose, there are the other factors, already mentioned, such as the shortage of finances and the lack of communication and leadership skills on the part of the leadership of such movements.

Despite these countervailing odds, the uncertainty factors can also be interpreted as positive. When the government's social policies are unstable and unpredictable, clearly described and articulated demands may attract a large number of supporters. Moreover, the uncertainties about work opportunities and welfare support affect men and women alike. Both men and women are going through the crisis of defining their self-identity within the altered political and social environment. There is a strong likelihood that, should the women's groups be able to improve their civic skills, many men would identify with their viewpoints. Under the given circumstances, assertive activism and the articulate communication needs and demands can appear as genuine social power. Finally and perhaps more importantly, the post-1989 Hungary's women's movement should be able to build upon the legacy of Hungarian women's movements of the past.

In conclusion, it might be assumed that modern Hungarian feminism and the women's movement will not repeat the developmental path of Western feminism because of the obviously different historical, sociological and geographical backgrounds. The discussion of gender identity should parallel the discussion of national and cultural identities of Hungarian citizens. Both men and women should join this discussion.

Identity and Public Roles

A Negative Collective Identity

Most members of the general public in Hungary view the subjects of women's identities, especially women's public identities, as problematic. They tend to reject expressions of women's self-esteem and self-definition. Furthermore, the promoters of a Magyar national-cultural, collective identity often criticize what they call "feminists" for being unpatriotic, and they regard instances of conscious self-expression by women as attempts to undermine a collective national identity. Not surprisingly under these circumstances, women's identities and self-images in contemporary Hungary are usually negative.

Sociologist György Csepeli has argued that this negative identity has been shaped by East European and Hungarian social and historical circumstances. According to Csepeli, state socialism destroyed the possibility of forging a positive identity and, instead, created the frame-work for a strictly defined collective identity which was then filled with negative content: "Nobody could define who they were, but everybody could say who they were not." The post-1989 public discourses on identity seem to perpetuate this negative identity:

The iron curtain had to be lifted so that people could face the question who they are, where they come from, where they are heading. It was revealed, however, that the new ideals in the name of which the "velvet," "quiet," etc. revolutions took place come from the old times - mostly they were the products of Enlightenment. The issues of individual rights/human rights and national freedom or the issues of social justice have been placed in the focus of political discourses again.6

The new collective identity which emerged in post-1989 Hungary has not been formed through debate and public discussion. The supporters of this collective identity regard public issues as issues of faith and cultural traditions. When confronted with different views, they often respond not only with intellectual arguments, but also with emotional outbursts and sometimes even physical violence.

The Post-communist "Carnival"

The definition of private and public are problematic in the Hungarian social atmosphere. There is a strong tendency to perpetuate the belief that the only public issues are: government politics, economy and foreign affairs - in particular, NATO and EU issues. Certain aspects of popular culture, such as journalism, TV, and sports, may also be considered public issues. However, issues such as health care, education, the environment and social security are often relegated to the realm of the private sphere.

At the same time there is a tendency on the part of the public to interpret public roles as artificial and compulsory routines of a theatrical nature. The actors keep repeating the same ideals, which they say are desirable and valuable, but they never justify them with authentic arguments. As a consequence, they play "phantom roles" prescribed by imagined public expectations, instead of relying on justifiable and reliable social and cultural experiences. Hungarians, it seems, live in the public world of clowns and tragic heroes - a phenomenon which has a long history in Hungary. The role of the trustworthy citizen does not convey positive values. The citizen who respects laws and other individual rights is considered to be unfit to survive the harshness of unrestrained capitalism. He/she is an "idealist" and a "fool", regardless of gender.

Lack of Analyses in Social and Cultural Studies

The speedy transformations in the economy and in political structures give rise to constant shifts in society's value systems. Another problem is the fact that there is hardly any analysis available in social and cultural studies that discusses the constantly changing situation, and would follow up on unfolding events. The reasons for this scarcity of analysis and reflection are manifold, the discussion of which would stretch beyond the limits of this paper. It might be noted though, that this phenomenon appears to be contributing to difficulties in the analysis of the possibilities of Hungarian feminism as well.

Erzsébet Szalai comments on the present state of social research when she compares the roles of social studies in the past and in the present:

It is a most striking phenomenon that communication among the actors of social sciences has shrunk and almost died away. The environment for meaningful discussions has also disappeared, and even the specific language of social sciences has lost its meaning.
In the 1970's and 1980's sociology created and fostered the language and the discourse of social sciences and was a powerful force in creating cultural discussions (if only an elitist one). Since the end of the 1980's however, it is the political discourse that has become the instrumental mode of cultural production as well.
Cultural and social discourses limit themselves to the discussion of unexpected events. By now the repetition of speech patterns and slogans has become the accepted modes of interaction. The only space left for meaningful communication is in literature, the arts and cultural life.7

Szalai concludes that Hungarian culture and society have quickly reached the state of post-modernity and even gone beyond it by interpreting freedom and human rights as unlimited freedom with no countervailing collective or individual responsibilities.

Because of the political/ideological confusion and lack of stable and common ethical standards, it is very difficult to interpret the notions of 'the public' and 'the private' in the Hungarian social context. The public and private are intertwined in ways that are distinctly different from Western cultural traditions. The difficulty of interpretation lies partly in the complexity of the inherited political and cultural ideologies and practices. The layers of a variety of historically mainstream discourses have quickly accumulated on top of each other leaving no time and space for discussion and reflection.

Popular Culture

In post-1989 Hungarian society women's identities and images are shaped, to a large extent, by the popular media. Since there is no criticism available from the civic sphere, the social sciences, or individuals, the impact of advertising and the values of consumerism - which are introduced through the channels of public culture - are intense and over-whelming. The popular media promote images of women as sexy, young and attractive beings, one might say "things." The popular hegemonic view which considers women and women's bodies as sex objects is not questioned at all. This portrayal is simply regarded as natural.

These images of women are promoted by many women's magazines, TV advertisements and soap operas. The images suggest that women should create their identities by using the appropriate consumer products. Popular culture sends the message to women that they should restrict their interests to clothing, keeping fit, looking after their house-holds and their sexual activities. Ildikó Kulcsár has illustrated this trend in an apocryphal story she published in Hungary's best-known women's periodical, the Nők Lapja [Women's Magazine]:

I would like to share with you a nightmare I have had. A man arrived from another planet and wanted to find a wife from among the women on Earth. He was watching TV for a few days and then went shopping. He bought one or two tons of sanitary pads, three tons of facial cream, body lotion, hair dye, a huge amount of women's razors (as according to the TV programs women spend a lot of time with getting rid of their body hair), a huge quantity of washing powder, a few kilos of baby nappies and herbal teas for a slimming diet, five litres of deodorant (as women get enchanted by the scent of men's deodorants).
Then he locked the woman inside the house. And he thought he was an excellent husband, as he had learned from TV that only these things could make women happy.8

The more ambitious print media present women's issues in the form of disconnected incidents or events and not as matters that are embedded in the current social order. Cases of violence against women are typically presented as sensational "news" items and reported as interesting stories, not as symptoms of social problems.

Anti-Feminism

Among the few cultural representations of the recent socio-cultural transformations of the post-communist period, Hungarian cinema has produced the most telling portrayals. In contrast to many of their male colleagues, a number of women film directors have raised issues of class relations, gender, love, sexuality, deception and honesty in unsentimental and, at times, even a ruthless fashion. Ildikó Szabó's Csajok [Chicks, slang for adolescent girls] offers a kaleidoscopic series of images describing and expressing the tensions and conflicts that arise as the individuals - in this case women - learn how to live without the ruling hegemonic ideology and ethics. The women portrayed are confronted with issues and conflicts that stem from the deeply set traditional expectations concerning the behaviour of men and women. The director places three women in the centre of a series of scenes. The three women are extremely different from the glamorous images of women created by Western media. They are depicted from the perspective of genuine women's experiences in East Central European cultures and are in complete contrast to the dominant expectations of what is beautiful, interesting and important.

Each of these three strong women resists the secondary status and "possession" identity that is imposed on them by both the domineering husbands or lovers, and also by the society "at large." The audience is guided through the private events of their lives, through the conflicts that follow from their not doing what they are supposed to do: housework, bearing children, accepting lifestyle patterns, religions or ethnic stereotyping, etc. These life-events are presented in intricate metaphors, which on the surface may seem humorous at times, but when placed in the context of the "struggle for personal survival," the grotesque and eccentric quality of the women's actions are shown. In their complex conflicts there is expressed the strong desire for connectedness and loving.

The carnivalesque nature of the events and social environment is further illuminated by the fact that the husbands and men in the film also struggle with their own possession identities - imposed on them by political ideologies - though, on the outside they insist on wearing the mask of a traditionally inscribed strong and domineering masculine man. While the men submerge in the grotesqueness and the hopelessness of the situation, women, with enormous effort and pain - both physical and mental - stay on the surface and manage to keep the remnants of their identity together. The imagery lends itself to suggestive interpretations. Bathing and swimming together may be viewed as the visual representations of the solidarity and unity of women. It is in water and in swimming where they find each other, express and share their feelings freely, and where they find calmness and warmth. Of course, one may interpret this metaphoric expression differently. In this case, swimming may be viewed as giving up, walking away from the conflicts. However, on a positive note, one can argue that this is the way they collect energy and strength as they prepare to fight the next battle.

Szabó's cinematic language is an encouraging indication that there are ways and tools with the help of which the reflection and the theorization of subjectivity is possible in the Eastern European post-communist, non-reflective culture. The American student of East European cinema, Catherine Portuges, cogently describes the efforts of Hungarian women directors (Szabó, as well as Márta Mészáros, Judit Elek, Lyvia Gyarmathy, etc.) when she writes:

They speak of the legacy of ideological and internal exile, that is, isolation, alienation, deprivation of the means of production and communication, and exclusion from public life... of human trauma that has also given rise to ethical, political, and artistic resistance. But they speak equally persuasively of strong national and historical traditions, of literary and artistic accomplishments, and of a new generation psychologically and intellectually prepared to make the next move. Most importantly, they attest to the centrality of women filmmakers' role as intellectuals, as critics of existing systems; and as savvy entrepreneurs already making movies that give voice to the fears, anxieties, and desires of their compatriots, to the suffering and triumph of national selves as well as of an emergent transnational identity.9

Conclusions: Toward a Feminist Theory

The socio-cultural space in which women in East Central Europe live may make it possible to create the intellectual distance needed to reflect on the "validity" of Western feminist trends. The Eastern European critique might be accused of being essentialist in nature, but this can be overcome if we problematize the individual-oriented nature of those theories. The discussions offered by the deconstructionist of post-structuralist thinkers chose to compartmentalize and isolate the issues, which does not alter the patterns of thinking. The issues and ideas raised by Hungarian - and, also, Czech and Russian - writers suggest that by making individual experience the central focus, mainstream feminist theory appears to have become fossilized and does not offer any theory or practical method for understanding common or communal identity. Somehow in the course of worrying about the individual and the individual's rights, we have forgotten about the factors which have formed our cultural and public identities. Jirina Siklova discusses the relevance of social cohesion as a historical background to the interpretation of feminism:

There are a number of reasons why feminism has not met with success in the Czech Republic. [Feminism] has its roots in the history of our nation and its specific Czech traditions, and the recent past of the communist regime. Not even the present period of transition to a market economy is ripe for feminism, and the influence of feminist ideology is causing more harm than good.
The relative absence of tension between men and women in the Czech Republic stems from the fact that for a long period our country had a common enemy, which had the effect of strengthening the cohesion of all who identified themselves as Czech.
Women's movements were already vigorously spreading in the Czech lands in the 19th century, with patriotic and democratic roots. Men supported the education of women and their fight for the right to vote, and Czech women were partners with Czech men in opposition to the Habsburg Monarchy. Even following the First World War, when women were fighting for civil rights across Europe, it was unnecessary for Czech women to gain their position through confrontation with men.10

On the basis of their historically, culturally and geopolitically defined experiences, Hungarian feminists will have to formulate and theorize their own issues and approaches. Western feminisms grew out of liberal social traditions. Such traditions have never existed in Hungarian social history. Western feminist vantage points in discussion of issues of oppression and male hegemonic discourse should also be reconsidered, since in Eastern Europe's social history both genders experienced the same oppressed positions. The theory of social deconstruction cannot be applied in a society where no defined construct of society exists. Personal identity issues seem to be more gender-blended in the Eastern European context, because of the specific historico-cultural construct of the Hungarian socio-cultural discourses.

An alternative approach to the hegemony of texts and semiotic models should also be considered. The slower and more contemplative and less agent-oriented "evolution" of cultures and cultural myths might be just as "productive" ultimately. Estella Lauter's comments should attract the attention of those who are interested in the analysis of the evolving feminisms of post-communist East Central Europe:

In the midst of a culture that still wants desperately to define once and for all time "what-is," it is difficult to establish an alternative mind-set that will allow us to move behind our cultural stage into the wings of female experience without claiming that we have found the essential nature of woman. I believe, however, that a feminist archetypal theory could help us to accomplish this task. If we redefine the archetype as a tendency to form images in relation to recurrent experiences and acknowledge that women as well as men must have the capacity, we need only uncover enough images created by women to discover the patterns in our experiences. If we think of myth as a structure for dealing with shared crises of self-definition in the face of the unknown, we need only locate mythic stories created by women in order to know which of our experiences have been most critical or enduring.
The efficacy of this strategy depends on our willingness to redefine the unconscious... as the unknown within us instead of being simply a storehouse of repressed materials. It also depends on our willingness to challenge the prevailing idea that everything can be explained in terms of a semiotic model.11

The Hungarian Feminist Past

Modern Hungarian feminism has inherited abundant ammunition from the past to revive neglected cultural feminist thought. Cultural feminism may prove to be an authentic contribution to an organically European-style socio-cultural development in the East Central European region.

The Hungarian contemporaries of Mary Wollstonecraft drafted their versions of the Vindication... in 1790. Historical Hungarian feminism evolved as a consequence of social changes that placed women's education and women's culture in the mainstream of national social progress. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hungarian women were not only worthy contributors to the contemporary religious debates, but they were also commemorated in several art forms. The 18th century was a period of lively literary debates concerning the role of women. In 1790, three pioneering pamphlets were published discussing the position of women in Hungary: (1) Hungarian Women's Petition to the Hungarian Parliament; (2) In Defense of Hungarian Women; (3) The Phoenix of Pannonia.

In the 19th century, women's education became a crucial issue in discussions of national identity. In response to the increasingly strong Austrian influence on the economy and culture of Hungary, politicians started to consider ways in which they could ensure the survival of Hungarian values. Many of the decision makers were far from radical in their opinion of women's roles in society inasmuch as they insisted on the traditional roles of women as mothers and caretakers of the household. However, they considered women's education to be the vehicle for developing the nation. Educated women would pass on their knowledge and values to their sons, thereby raising a new generation of Hungarian patriots.

Towards the end of the 19th century, several trends in feminist thinking (radical, socialist, religious, cultural) emerged. Hungarian culture produced such thinkers as Róza Bédy-Schwimmer, Vilma Glücklich, Béláné (Mrs.) Gonda, in the cultural and literary/journalist scene. Their contribution to theorizing about women has been a valuable inheritance to modern Hungarian feminism. They were also joined by several male authors; Pál Ignotus, Frigyes Karinthy and Miklós Bittenbinder who, in spite of their sex, enthusiastically advocated female values and the unconditional emancipation of women. They envisaged cultural equality as the only possible future development.

We should note another social and cultural phenomenon in turn-of-the-century Hungary. Women's position and education were topical cultural issues within socio-political feminist discussion. As in 18th century Hungary, women became the topic of literary life and journalism in the first decades of the 20th century. The cultural players in society seemed to be more sensitive to and distinctly supportive of women's issues. The summary of the various disputes about women's identity and status is provided in Margit Kaffka's Az asszony ügye [The Woman Question]:

She must become a person, in whose character values such as honesty, reliability, responsibility, discretion, and generosity must equal the womanly charm she possesses.... She must be able to develop, to stand tall, and to place her point of balance and her values in herself, and not in the opinions of men.... And above all, she must find herself, she must dig out and bring to the surface those long-hidden life energies and values which she owes the world and without which the world would be emptier and uglier.12

NOTES

1 Mária Neményi, Férfiak köztársasága [Men's Republic], Magyar Hírlap, 20 Sept., 1997.
2 Election campaign leaflet, spring, 1998.
3 Katalin Lévai and Róbert Kiss, "Nők a közéletben" [Women in Public Life], in Szerepváltozások. Jelentés a nők helyzetéről [The Changing of Roles: Report on the Situation of Women], Katalin Lévai and István György Tóth, eds. (Budapest: Munkaügyi Minisztérium, 1997), pp. 52-70.
4 Munkaügyi Minisztérium, Egyenlő Esélyek Titkársága Hivatalos Programja [Mission Statement, Office of Euqal Opportunity, Ministry of Employment] (Budapest, 1996) (a brochure).
5 Andrea M. Rimay, "Próbaper a nőkért" [Lawsuit for the Women], Népszabadság, 9 Dec. 1997.
6 György Csepeli, "Kultúra és identitás" [Culture and Identity], in Nyelv, nyelvész, társadalom [Language, Linguist and Society], István Terts, ed. (Pécs, Hungary: Janus Pannonius University, 1996), pp. 33-37. This author's researches have been published in English: György Csepeli, National Identity in Contemporary Hungary (Highland Lakes, N.J.: Atlantic Research and Publications, 1997; Columbia University Press, distributor), transl. M.D. Fenyo.
7 Erzsébet Szalai, Az elitek átváltozása [The Transformation of Elites] (Budapest: Cserépfalvi Kiadó, 1996), pp. 107-137.
8 Ildikó V. Kulcsár, "A nők és a reklám" [Women and Advertisements], Nők Lapja, October, 1997.
9 Catherine Portuges, "Gendering Cinema in Postcommunist Hungary," in Postcommunism and Body Politics, Ellen E. Berry ed. (New York and London: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 296-313.
10 Jirina Siklova, "Different Region, Different Women: Why Feminism Isn't Successful in the Czech Republic," in Colonisation or Partnership? Eastern Europe and Western Social Sciences, Miklós Hadas and Miklós Vörös, eds., a special volume of Replika: Hungarian Social Science Quarterly (1996), pp. 91-95.
11 Estella Lauter, Women as Mythmakers: Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth-Century Women (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press: 1994), p. 8.
12 Margit Kaffka, "Az asszony ügye" [The Woman Question], in Margit Kaffka, Az élet útján. Versek, cikkek, naplójegyzetek [On the Path of Life: Poems, Essays, Diary Entries], György Bodnár, ed. (Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1972). Margit Kaffka's "Az asszony ügye" was originally published in Világ, 20 April, 1913.