Oldal 109 [109]
GENDER HISTORY RETROSPECTIVE IN HUNGARY AFTER 1949
been stated. Article 1 paragraph 66 posits complete legal eguality between
men and women, i.e. rejects any negative gender discrimination extended to
all facets of life: “The Republic of Hungary shall ensure the equality of men
and women in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights." Thus
it established and provided a unified framework for all those new elements in
legal regulation, which led to the equality of women in Hungary from a legal
point of view. The Family Act of 1952 (Act IV of 1952) created legal equality
with respect to the role of women in the family, which presented a fundamen¬
tally new approach in family relations. “Socialist marriage is a fellowship built
upon the affection between two free and equal people.”*°? Moreover, the above
legal act declared the equal rights and responsibilities regarding family mat¬
ters, codified the freedom in the choice of names, stressed the joint estate,
defined the rights pertaining to divorce, and detailed the equal rights regard¬
ing child custody and the right of shared parenting. We cannot forget how¬
ever that the primary goal of the above was to achieve complete control over
the family as a legal institution. In any case, by providing the right for women
to initiate divorce, the state actually made the resolution of family bonds
easier.’”
We need to add that simultaneously to providing these rights, the Ministry
of the Interior issued regulations that resulted in the abolishing of any possi¬
bility of civil organisations. As the result of this, the Hungarian Feminist
Association, existing since 1904, as well as numerous other organisations
(civil reading circles and clubs, organisations independent of the state party,
charity women’s associations, etc.) could not be active until the regime change."
The MNDSZ [Magyar Nők Demokratikus Szövetsége, Hungarian Womens
Democratic Alliance] active until 1956, as well as the MNOT [Magyar Nök
Orszdgos Tanacsa, National Council of Hungarian Women] reorganised in
1957 and active until 1989 were not independent of the one-party state, as they
exclusively represented the state ideology.
One of the consequences was that the diverse western waves of feminism,
as well as the ideologies stated therein, could not be introduced in Hungary,
and emblematic writings could not get into the hands of Hungarian readers
after 1945. Not to mention that these works were not even available in their
original languages.
301 1949. évi XX. törvény — A Magyar Népköztársaság Alkotmánya, http://www.rev.hu/sulinet45/
szerviz/dokument/1949.evi3.htm (accessed 2 May 2020).
302 Schadt, M.: , A feltörekvő dolgozó nő" -— Nők az ötvenes években, Pécs, Pannónia Könyvek,
2003, 18.
303 Cf. ibidem.
304 Acsády, J.: Államszocializmus — nők — ellenzékiség, Társadalmi Nemek Tudománya Inter¬
diszciplináris eFolyóirat, 8(1), 2018, 1-15, https://ojs.bibl.u-szeged.hu/index.php/tntef/article/
view/33836/32908 (accessed 21 May 2022).
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