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GENDER HISTORY RETROSPECTIVE IN HUNGARY AFTER 1949 during the whole socialist era, and keeping up a certain standard of living required the gainful employment of both partners in most cases.*” As opposed to this, the majority of women belonging to the white-collar class and the political elite were, not surprisingly, able to utilise the possibilities originating from paid labour, because they enjoyed certain advantages compared to other women and also because they were able to pass on a part of their caretaking responsibilities to other women. Zimmermann has pointed to this fact by quoting the study Two Generations’ Perceptions of Femininity in Post-Socialist Hungary (1999) by Anna Kende and Maria Neményi: White-collar professionals, or experts with a college degree with a career, have on occasion achieved more than their husbands, and women whose families had substantial reserves had the opportunity to delegate housekeeping onto other women. Based on this study, the positive three-part identity of these women enjoying social privileges due to their employment compared to other women — has at the same time been linked by both the traditional family roles and gender equality.°’® Finally, we can state that the real problem of discrimination against women could not be solved by the soviet emancipation model. It turned out that, irrespective of the particular social organisation and its ideology — which had a significant impact on social relations and provided opportunities to hundreds of thousands of women in the world outside of their family —, the biggest disadvantages that women had to endure, the traditional social roles based on gender stereotypes and structural disadvantages, remained unchanged. We can assert that as long as women’s emancipation exclusively serves the goals of propaganda, and the equality of relationships inside and outside the family is not actually realised, no change will ever take place. 352 Schadt: , A feltörekvő dolgozó nő", 128. 353 Neményi-Kende, guoted by Zimmermann: A társadalmi-nemi (gender-) rezsim, 83-84.
