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IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
well as benevolent and modern sexism,?" is present among women as well as
men, albeit with differing emphases. While a part of the female populace more
or less agrees with these stereotypes, another part of the female populace
completely rejects every expression of these, and aims to collectively to change
them.””°
How does all this appear in the Hungarian scientific elite? What is the stance
of female academicians to the question of women? Can the aforementioned
“self-discrimination” or “stereotype threat”*”' be detected among them? How
are gender stereotypes, “sexist beliefs”, present among the surveyed female
scholars? What are the different social gender identity types that can be iso¬
lated in light of those? Does the essentializing discourse present itself at all
among the surveyed scholars,”” and in what forms does it manifest itself? How
strong is the phenomenon of identifying with women among those with a DSc
degree, what is their relationship towards their own collective? What does it
mean for them to be a woman from the perspective of female characteristics,
traits, interests and values?
APPLIED METHOD AND SAMPLE, FURTHER RESEARCH ISSUES
As I have mentioned in the Introduction to this book, I have attempted to find
answers to the queries I have raised by using the form of semi-structured in¬
terviews with female members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Magyar
Tudomanyos Akadémia, referred to henceforth as MTA]. These were recorded
between December 2017 and September 2018. A total of 32 women were in¬
terviewed: 11 academicians (ordinary or corresponding members) and 21
DScs.”?3 The complete membership of MTA consisted of 344 ordinary and
corresponding members in that time period, a mere 24 of whom were women,
219 The concept of sexism itself is an umbrella term for gender attitudes, which are not neces¬
sarily only negative. There is what we can call benevolent sexism, which, while carrying
positive sentiments, nonetheless reinforces the traditional stereotypes. Glick and Fiske describe
sexism as a multi-dimensional construct that covers two sexist attitudes: hostile and benev¬
olent sexism. Hostile sexism is defined as the aspects of sexism which are based on the
classic concept of prejudice as described by Allport (Glick, P — Fiske, S. T.: The Ambivalent
Sexism Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexism, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology 70(3), 1996, 491).
Becker, J. C. - Wagner, U.: Doing Gender Differently. The Interplay of Strength of Gender
Identification and Content of Gender Identity in Predicting Women’s Endorsement of Sexist
Beliefs, European Journal of Social Psychology 39(4), 2009, 487.
The term stereotype threat was first defined by Steele and Aronson (Steele—Aronson: Stereo¬
type threat).
As mentioned while detailing the research sample, interviews were made with female acade¬
micians as well as female DScs of the MTA (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia).
The analysis was part of a larger research, merely one aspect of which was the examination
of female identity.
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