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INTRODUCTION segment i.e. during their college years. Aside from this, it was obvious in every area that the female scholars have suffered disadvantages not because of their gender, but on political-ideological grounds. Experiences related to horizontal segregation only appeared in connection with vocational choices. This was followed by the dilemma of the work-life balance, the conflict of family versus career, which reflected the conclusions detailed in the theoretical sections of our work, namely that career and family could only be accommodated with the presence of suitable subsidies. It could furthermore be stated that women under this double burden had to combat significant disadvantages. In order to be able to reach a conclusion in this matter, I have examined women receiving subsidies, those lacking subsidies and those who chose to remain solitary in three separate groups, comparing their answers and opinions. The added challenges stemming from the traditional female roles and the difficulties, obstructions rooted herein have visibly shown up here. This proves that a dilemma affecting only women has presented itself at this point in every case. Based on the above, it can also be concluded that, while the number of women present in education and the labour market rose drastically in Hungary during the emancipation movement following World War II, this did not solve the issue of balancing one’s career and family. Above all this, my results have reconfirmed the general tendency showing that the extended family model is not overly typical in the case of scholars. Beside a so-called “fortune motif” — consisting of three components (support from family or other sources, support and personality of the husband — if there was one — and the professional environment) the research showed that individual character traits have also played a significant role in scientific careers of the individuals interviewed. These women have interestingly not experienced any gender-based negative discrimination in the junior researcher period of their lives. Here they have only reported disadvantages which are mainly rooted in geographical (centre vs periphery), geopolitical (Eastern Europe) and political-ideological (a socialist country turning post-socialist) reasons. (See the chapter titled “Gender history retrospective in Hungary after 1949. Spaces and opportunities after the Declaration of Gender Equality and the shadow of the ideology of the Party”.) The qualitative research furthermore demonstrated that they suffered no gender-based discrimination after receiving the DSc status at the Academy, or in their scientific life in general — the only authoritative factors were knowledge, learning (beside the supportive family background, which we have already mentioned), and their results, i.e. merit. +13 +
