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WOMEN IN THE SCIENTIFIC ELITE I would not have been able to handle conflicts in the department. That has always been the area of authoritarian men. (Subject no. 8, human sciences) I feel that if I'd had any ambitions for a leadership position, I would have reached it. But I have a conviction that the majority of women would not want that. They wouldn't be effective enough. So this is not the same as recognising scientific performance. I expect women to be acknowledged in that aspect too. But a leadership position, that’s different, I don’t know how many women aspire to that. I don’t think too many do. (Subject no. 4, social sciences) They could actually be matched to the “traditional identifiers” due to their strong identification with women, identification with a certain group of feminists can however still not be excluded. One of the benefits of MIA (multiple identity approach) is that it points out the possibility of identifying with women without that necessarily leading to politicisation. This distinction of womanhood is supported by further works in gender literature as well as the feminist movements themselves. Certain strains of feminism namely put a huge emphasis on womanhood as the field of positive discernment from men (e.g. difference feminism), while others (as it appears with the 4th type, see below) undermine it.””’ It can also be established that the attitude of female scholars in this group can from many aspects be described with the axioms phrased in post-feminism. This means the difference between the genders needs to be reinforced positively, and the individual otherness of women has to be acknowledged as well.?”? Most are in agreement that the fundamental differences are enhanced by certain further factors such as a woman having a child. They think this circumstance virtually rules out their being a good leader simultaneously as well. Besides, I am not that certain that girls really want to be leaders at all. Because if you are a boss, you need to be present at every single meeting and gathering where there must be some kind of leadership conflict [...] You always need to be there, because if you aren't, nobody is going to stand up for your own people. And not all women can do this. There is a tremendous amount of work with children, and that always takes priority in their case. (Subject no. 21, natural sciences) This was further reinforced by a female scholar (Subject no. 29, natural sciences), who — speaking about her own experience — stated that she was only able to give 100% until there was a call informing her that her child has a fever. It wouldn’t matter if she’d sent someone in her stead in such cases, for her mind 272 Van Breen et al.: A Multiple Identity, 18. 273 Kádár, J.: Feminista nézőpont az irodalomtudományban, Helikon. Vol. 40, No. 4, 1994, 407-416. + 9] +
