Page 78 [78]
IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
The term token is most often used by feminist theoreticians to describe this
phenomenon, with token usually signifying the small minority of women in
the highest echelons in the context of “masculine” professions, representing
an exception, who are in the “man’s world” not characteristically tailored to
their gender. Thereby they do not enter it as a reinforcement of a collective
character trait, but they enter it as if from the outside, from a frontier and then
assimilate to the standards of the “man’s world”.
Therefore, in the areas where women are significantly underrepresented,
there are always two choices: (1) coping with the “chilling climate”, for they
would otherwise drop away,” with the hostile environment rejecting them,
or (2) assimilation, becoming masculine, meaning surrendering certain aspects
of their gender identity.*”? Women with a role in “masculine” professions are
not changing the status quo; paradoxically they are reinforcing it.
These assimilation processes can manifest in different ways; they can be
the appropriation of physical, cultural and social role characteristics.”*° “Ac¬
cording to Irigaray, if a woman intends to speak as a theorist, she will speak
as a man, i.e. she will imitate male speaking patterns. Her femininity can
simply not appear in the dominant philosophical discourse.””*!
228 For further details see the research paper Lanyok útja a műszaki diplomáig [Girls on the path
to an engineering degree], which — among other things — investigates the reasons of
disproportionate drop-away rates of women in this field. (Lányok útja a műszaki diplomáig
— Középiskolai felsőoktatási esélyek és nemi különbségek a műszaki pályaválasztás területén.
Made by Krolify Research Institute for Organisation and Attitude, 2012, http://www.krolify.
hu/OEGENDER/oegender_kvali_finalfin.pdf — accessed 30 May 2019.)
In her book titled Hattérben [In the background] Beata Nagy has pointed out that, while
women can/do enter the fields of technical science or information technology based on their
performance, and they can demonstrate astonishing levels of performance quality, the insti¬
tutional circumstances tend to push them out after a while in most cases. The reason for this
is that the organisational environment tends to accept male traits. Women can therefore feel
alien, unless they surrender certain aspects of their gender identity (Nagy: Hatterben, 59).
This is characteristic of workplace organisations in general as well. Based on this, women
have fundamentally had two choices in these organisations: either (1) working and behaving
like a man in leadership positions, or (2) accepting supporting background roles, duties of
lower status and work in assistance or secretary positions, which are virtually equal to
“household” roles within the workplace organisation (Nagy: Szervezet és nemek, 60).
Block et al.: Contending With Stereotype Threat, 577.
Moi, T.: Feminista irodalomkritika, in Jefferson, A. — Robey, D. (eds.): Bevezetés a modern
irodalomelmeletbe, Budapest, Osiris, 1995, 250. The personal pathfinding of women, the
issue of one’s personal voice, the search for one’s voice and several further difficulties are
worth mentioning here. These are problems which have not been overcome to this day. Women
grab a pen, write and think in a way that allows them to remain within the theoretical frames
appreciated by men, created by their ideologies. I am referring to the shy lyrical self of female
authors. “The greater part of what women write about women is mere sycophancy to men”
— states Mill in the emblematic and often quoted work The Subjection of Women (Kadar,
guoted by Takács, I.: Nők a tudományban - A női tudósok odisszeája, a háttérből ,,Prokru¬
sztész ágyába", avagy a férfi korrelátum opálos tükre, Metszetek. Társadalomtudományi
Folyóirat, Vol. 6, No. 2017, 148).
22
©
23
S
23
e
.76 +