Oldal 416 [416]
ANDREA PETŐ
period how the sexual "difference" was subordinated to the universalist party aims
in the Hungarian social democratic party. Anna Kéthly, who was charismatic
female leader of the social democracy much before the rise of successful female
politicians from Scandinavia, editor of the Nőmunkás, nearly never stood up
for “women’s rights” publicly except the employment issues. At the same time
the female politicians who were elected to the Budapest municipal on a social
democratic ticket were ghettoized in the section on social policy which at the same
time offered them a site for political training and building electoral support. This
is exactly the strategy which is used by illiberal regimes.
After WWII half of Europe was occupied by the Red Army which had serious
consequences for gender politics and for the mobilizational potential of the
social democrats. After 1945 the sexual difference in the countries under Soviet
occupation was framed in the equality discourse.’ In that frame there were two
alternatives: the social democratic and the communist handful of home grown and
couple of hundreds returning from emigration from the Soviet Union. In 1945 the
Social Democrat Party realized to their amazement that the communists, who in
the interwar period were working under illegal conditions, had used their party
to popularize themselves, now came out of hiding and demanded that they would
be the single political representative of the working class." The social democratic
women’s movement, apart from its well-built network and good working relations
with the trade unions, also had conscious politicized women members. The Social
Democrats after 1945 were proud that their female comrades “work with much
greater agility than the average man”."” The fact that it had state administration
experience who worked in the Budapest municipal social policy section, actively
took part in shaping social policy cannot be forgotten either. In the winter of 1945,
the Social Democrat women’s movement had the most radical program as far as
gender equality is concerned; they were not bound by the tactical cautiousness
that was so characteristic of the communists at that time. In their program the
social democrats made a confident stand for the political and legal emancipation
of women, equal pay for equal work, and furthermore, in accordance with broad
social democratization, for the complete emancipation of women in the political
and cultural spheres. For the social democrat women’s movement two factors were
to prove vital in their loss of social influence and to the failure of this promising
political program. Their resistance was worn down by continual friction with
the communists and they did not have material resources to distribute to the
Petö, Andrea, A Missing Piece? How Women in the Communist Nomeclature are not
Remembering, East European Politics and Society 16 (2003), 948-958.
More on this see Petö, Andrea, Hungarian Women in Politics 1945-1951, East European
Monographs Series, New York, NY, Columbia University Press, 2003.
1! Archive of Institute of Political History, Budapest (further PIL) 283. 20. 7. 268.
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