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IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
I am of course raising my sons in the meantime, who say they haven t suffered many
disadvantages from me doing all those other things as well, but the nights are long
and I can get by with very little sleep. So I had time to do something in those nightly
hours [...] As far as I am concerned, I always enjoyed fulfilling the role of a homan,
and I cannot name any negative aspects. (Subject no. 10, DSc, technical sciences)
All this ultimately reflects the dual expectations, typical in Hungarian
society, that a woman needs to work while fulfilling the traditional roles of
mother and wife at the same time.” The group mainly consists of natural
science scholars.
2nd group: the “essentialist identifier” type
The second group includes female scholars who find there is a fundamental
difference between men and women in terms of how they comply to their tasks
and how their preferences and value assessments develop in their lives. They
think this “otherness” is present between men and women not only in family
life, but in public life as well. Members of this group state that to lead is fun¬
damentally not a womanly task. Moreover, they believe that women do not
even want to become leaders, due to their nature. Their attitude towards aca¬
demic positions differs, but they typically do not consider it to be a goal nor a
particularly important aspect.
I feel that female peers are not that ambitious. We tend to feel comfortable in our
cozy little labs, and the additional challenges of being in a leadership position do
not make us any happier, but represent an added burden instead, which we don’t
necessarily want enthusiastically. (Subject no. 23, natural sciences)
The question is why the described pattern can be observed during the se¬
lection for leadership positions: is it because society does not allow women to
prevail, does not accept them as equals, or rather because they do not partic¬
ularly strive to reach higher themselves? This is difficult to inspect. It can
however be assumed that both aspects have an effect to a certain degree.
This holds women back from two directions, society will of course not ask them to
take on leadership roles. On the other hand, they don’t want to be leaders either,
because the stigma of the career-driven, tough, woman leader is still present, and
“Oh Lord, I just wish I had no woman for a boss”. But a woman of course needs to
be a little more assertive if she intends to lead, say, a hospital department. And if
268 Haraszty, guoted by Faragó, P.: Nők a tudományban. A tudós nők helyzete Magyarországon
a 20. sz4zadban, in Balogh, M. — S. Nagy, K. (eds.): Asszonysorsok a 20. században, Budapest,
BME Szociológia és Kommunikáció Tanszék, 2000, 27.
. 88 +