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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. + 414 +
