Seite 114 [114]
IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
father [...] could not be put in jail in 1956, but he needed to move to a different city.
(Subject no. 15, natural sciences)
So the issue was again not that the fact I am of a different gender. It would have
meant nothing at all [...] it was all political. (Subject no. 1, social sciences)
There were heaps of quality folks with a degree among my forebears, and children
of such had great difficulties getting into a university at the turn of the SOs. (Subject
no. 10, doctor of technical sciences)
I was not a member of KISZ [Magyar Kommunista Ifusdgi Szovetség, Hungarian
Young Communist League]. Those intending to continue their studies were 120%
KISZ-members in high school. Whoever wasn’t could not even be recommended
for university by the high school. And I had not become a member due to the Imre
Nagy trial and because my dad was thrown in the clink. When I explained I was
not a member of the League due to reasons of conscience, they considered me a
clericalist, because who else could have a conscience other than the religious. So
they introduced me to other teachers as a reactionary clericalist someone. But I
took part in all sorts of academic competitions so I could apply eventually. (Subject
no. 25, social sciences)
EQUAL RIGHTS IN STATISTICS, AND WHAT LAY BEHIND IT
The reformation of education practically meant making primary education
mandatory, followed by changing secondary education. The most important
result of the former was the disappearance of the gender-differentiated educa¬
tion typical for the interwar period in Hungary. Decree 6660/1995 of 1945
allowed for women to further their education in law school, whereas Act XII
of 1946 allowed for equal conditions for female and male applicants to enrol
to universities and colleges. As a consequence, the percentage of women rose
from 19.5% to 41.4% in middle schools in the 1951-52 school year, rising fur¬
ther to 52% by 1959.%1 There were significant changes in higher education as
well: “the percentage of female doctors as well as lawyers and attorneys rose
from 12.4% and 0% in 1949 to 21.5% and 9.2% in 1960, respectively”???
By the beginning of 1978, the educational level of working women under 35
was higher than that of men in the same age group. The proportion of women
with graduations was 22% in 1962, which grew to 40% by 1972, and up to 45%
34 See in Schadt: „A feltörekvö dolgozö nö”, 34-36.
322 Data from the Hungarian Statistical Office called KSH (Központi Statisztikai Hivatal) Adat¬
gyűjtemény, guoted by Schadt: , A feltörekvő dolgozó nő", 52.
e 112 e