TEACHING

GENDER STUDIES
IN HUNGARY

Edited by
Andrea Pet

Who teaches gender in Hungary today? Despite strong

resistance from colleagues and institutions, why do
gender studies professors hold firrnly to their demoeratic
principles of seholarship and education? This volume is
comprised of personal essays by published, lead ing
figures in the profession who approach gender from a
variety of disciplines: literature, economics, linguistics,
history, philosophy and sociology. They write directly
and honestly about the recent history of and the current
shifts in their disciplines under the Bologna Process and
within the transitioning higher education system in
Hungary.

BUDAPEST, 2006

~L~

Supported by the Ministry of Youth, Family,

Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

CONTENTS

Authors

Erzsbet Bart, Enik Bollobs, Zsuzsanna Halsz-Dabas,

Judit Friedrich, Mria Jo, Erika Kegyes-Szekeres, Katalin Koncz,
Edit Lukcs, Sarolta Marinovich. Marianna Lizk-Matiscsk
Mria Nemnyi, Andrea Pet, Nra Sllei, Mria Schadt. '
Judit Szap,or, Dorottya Szikra, Judit Takcs,
Eva Thun, Anna Wessely
Andrea Pet: Introduction

Erzsbet Bart-Sarolta Marinovich: Is There a Space

for Teaching Gender Studies in Hungarian
Higher Education?

13

Proofreading
RACHEL MILLER

Enik Bollobs: From Consciousness-Raising to Intellectual

Empowerment: Teaching Gender Since the Early 1980s

22

Editor
JUDIT BORUS

Marianna Lizk-Matiscsk-Zsuzsanna Halsz-Dabasi

-Edit Lukcs: Gender Studies at the Faculty of Economic
Sciences, University of Miskolc

29

Judit Friedrich: My Feminist Critical Thinking

37

Mria Jo: "Nice Ferninist" Philosophy

40

Erika Szekeres-Kegyes: Gender and Linguistics

50

Katalin Koncz: The History, Mission and Work

of the Women's Studies Centre

58

Mria Nemnyi: Women's Issues-Minority

68

Translation
BEASNDOR

ISBN 936 229 467 X

2006 by the Authors

Printed by
OBR 2000 Informatikai Kereskedelmi
s Szolgltat Kft.
Published by
Ministry of You th, Family,
Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
1054 Budapest, Akadmia u. 3.

Issues

Andrea Pet-judith Szapor: From the Teaching

of a "Discriminative" Women's History
to That of Gender Studies in Hungary

75

Nra SIIei:Reflections ......................................................................... 85

Mria Schadt: "Man's Work"

..............................................................

93

Dorottya Szikra: Characteristics of Teaching Social Policy

and Gender in Eastern Europe

100

Judit Takcs: From Sex to Gender

108

va Thun: Gender Studies in Educational Sciences

and the Pedagogy of Teacher Training

116

Anna Wessely: Perspectives

126

Contributors

129

Andrea Pet

INTRODUCTION

My concept for this volume arose in response to the forthcoming book

in Balassi Press' s Feminism and History series, due out in 2006and originally published in German as Breathing Space. The author, Ute
Gerhard, Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Frankfurt and the first scholar to receive the titIe of Professor of Women' s
Studies in Germany, encourages us to step out of the relentless pressure of work and stop for amoment, keeping in mind the existential
and structural problems at hand, to examine and reflect.
The Bologna Process, which is altering the structure of European
higher education, makes this volume especiaIIy timely. Educational
institutions and curricula are both changing, and this process urges
us to reexamine the place of gender studies in academia. As for peregrinatio, or the migration of students, Hungary has been a pia ce of
dispatch rather than a host country. Students-who are ma king use
of the Bologna Process and applying for increasingly more attractive
scholarships-are heading to places where they receive a high standard, interesting and relevant education. The fact that Hungarian
higher education cannot hold onto more open-minded students has
serious political and strategic consequences.'
Although brief, but still aiming to be representative, this book
intends to show who is teaching and what is being taught in the field
of gender studies in Hungary. At the beginning of the Bologna Process,
this is an account and examination of our current situation, which
seeks to clarify the theoretical frameworks and point out possible
future paths.

6
7

va Thun

GENDER STUDI ES IN EDUCATIONAL

SCIENCES AND THE PEDAGOGY OF TEACHER
TRAININGl

It would seem obvious that pedagogy would be receptive to the

acceptance and application of gender studies, as its research
methodologies have always been interdisciplinary, and it aims to
examine how people of different age groups study among differing
circumstances. Feminist philosophy as well as psychoanalytic,
sociological and anthropological theories, raise issues which have
their parallels in the field of pedagogy too.
Regarding the Hungarian traditions of organizing public education,
we could assume that pedagogy has not become part of the
mechanical production process of education technology, and that it
has preserved at least some marks of its philosophical foundations.
We would also have reason to assume that in teacher training, that
is, in the course of the training for a feminized profession, it would
be easier to bring up issues related to women and gender, reflect on
the significance of gen der and discuss the teaching methodologies of
feminist pedagogy.?
It would seem logical that interdisciplinary dialogues would be
especially present in a segment of pedagogy and teacher training that
deals with the pedagogy of teaching English as a foreign language,
as it has been engaged in an international professional dialogue with
the culture of English-speaking countries. We might assume that a
good command of English helps the free flow of different ways of
thinking, as weH as the surfacing, intersections and local application
of newapproaches.

116

Another route for the inclusion of gender studies into public and
higher education could be the active engagement of its professors in
institutional and professional politics,which would lead to the inclusion
of gender studies into the educational structures, especially now that
we can use the chances stemming from the reform and restructure of
our higher educational system through the Bologna Process.
Despite ali the above arguments, gender studies is not an
institutionalized and legitimatized theme within the discipline of
pedagogy. It is definitely useful to map out and list the reasons for
this gap and for the lack of theoretical discourses and practical
strategic development, as reflecting up on these questions may provide
points of reference for future action.

Gender Course Development Based on Personal Praxis

I began teaching the course, Gender Studies in Education and
Pedagogy, at the Faculty of Teacher Training at Etvs Lornd
University, in the Department of English Language and Literature in
1995.This seminar was announced for fourth-year students who were
training to become teachers.' One of my basic planning principles was
that I wanted the seminar to rely on students' individual professional
experiences and then attach theoretical knowledge to these. We
analyze the contents and forms of several fields of education and
pedagogy from agender studies stand point, and we also examine
pedagogical discourses. This includes the treatment of certain fields
of knowledge, e.g. the evaluation of syIlabuses, the functions of
education in creating values, the structure of public education, its
spaces of communication, teaching as a profession, as weIl as the
process of personal professional development and empowerment.t
Despite the institutional changes, more and more students have
been coming to these courses (approximately 250 people have
attend ed them since the beginningr. It seems that students feel a need
for this course, which offers to teach them to think in a less traditional
way, or ra ther, to learn to think and be able to critically reflect up on
various social issues.

117

There are pedagogical techniques that should be considered

increasingly important, such as the capabilities to reflect on swift social
changes and to relate to diversity, differences in va lu es and
standpoints. Other pedagogical values include parallelisms instead
of linearity, variety instead of uniformity and the ability to solve the
conflicts arising from this. If these pedagogical skills become part of
one' s knowledge and expertise, the abilities of women students to use
their skills in a cooperative way, to solve problems and conflicts in a
holistic way may contribute a great deal to our knowledge about
pedagogy and its development.
In order to have a real impact, a seminar which is embedded in an
educational and institutional system needs to have accessible scientific
materials, the necessary infra structure and public forums in which
the newly obtained knowledge can be applied and practiced, outside
the framework of the seminar and the educational institution.
AlI these efforts took shape between 1996 and 2002. AGender
Collection was founded at the locallibrary of the Faculty of Teacher
Training at Etvs Lornd University, a new resource called HR-NK
(News-Women) was published on the Internet and GESTH-L, a
Hungarian gender studies e-mailing list was also started in this period.
The curriculum of the course started in 1995/1996and was officially
accredited for the educational program of college-level teacher
training in 1998. However, during the structural reform of the
University (and partly because of the transition to the new, three-tier
educational system), when the departments of the Faculty of Teacher
Training were regrouped within the university system, the symbolic
space necessary for the course had to be started again. Bureaucratic
principles played a more significant role than professional innovation
and maintenance of good practices while the new BA and MA
programs were formed. In the previous system, the Faculty of Teacher
Training integrated professional training with the Department of
English Studies and included a methodological training focusing on
pedagogy and gen der, but it is much more difficult to argue that the
course should be a part of the Faculty of Humanities within the new
structuralframework.
If our higher educational system and teacher training were built
on a professional development program, both professors and students
118

would be able to teach or study in more than one faculty. However,

right now the course is tied to one person, so it can only survive
wherever the instructor has a status. While this situation prevents
"ghettoization," which is so often mentioned as a problem in the
internationalliterature, contingency, as well as lack of communication
between faculties and universities may also lead to the same problem.
Another factor that hinders "interfaculty" work and greater
professional and scientific choice is the homogenization of our higher
education, regarding both its contents and quality-despite the fact
that one aim of the Bologna Process is to make higher education more
accessible to everyone and more diverse. Ildik Hrubos (2000)defines
one reason for this homogenization when she writes that the work of
the Hungarian Accreditation Committee "is based on a purely
academic standpoint. This leads to disturbances, especially regarding
more practicaIly oriented programs.?"

Professional Discourse in the Field of Pedagogy

Another important basis and support for course development is
that the given professional discourse should continuously provide
new results and make these accessible to serve as both a source of
knowledge and legitimation of the given subject.
In our case, this means that gender studies at least should (should
be aIlowed to) appear in the pedagogical discourses and the discourses
related to education politics, and that pedagogy should begin a
dialogue with gender theories as they evolve and as international
comparative analyses develop in relation to them.
Looking at the dis cours es of educational sciences and pedagogy,
Mariann Buda (1997)found that what we can see are only "confused,
incoherent concepts":
"A number of epistemological, linguistic and sociological research
projects have shown that the use of scientific concepts, the methods
applied, and indeed the very results of any empirical research are at
least as much about the researchers who create them, as well as the
contexts, the frameworks of analysis, and the results that are shaped
by these, as about 'objective reality.' This, however, has not become
119

obvious in the field of theoretical and practical research related to

~ducati~n (. ..): It is probably also a backlash against the manifest
ldeolol?les.dunng the era of state socialism that many think any kind
~f subjectve ele.me~t.is harmf~l and unscholarly, mixing up the
mescapable subjectivity of the mterpretative framework and the
necessary impartiality of any scientific researcher." 7
In~tead of clarifying things, the latest postmodern topics (Iike
mU~hcuItur~1education, alternative pedagogies, etc.)flare up and give
the rnpressron that reforms are going on. If we examine the theoretical
background of teacher training, we can see that it does not relate much
to research-based theories; it is grounded in a traditional historicai
narrative, which hardly even mentions women's education when
talking. a~out the history of education. Thus it reproduces the
transm~sslOnof universalizing, uniform views on people as an ideal
educatlOnal method. Although this idealaf the educated man is
criticize~ in the in.ternationalliterature, this cannot yet be seen in the
Hunganan educational sciences.Feminist interpretations of pedagogy
or pe~agogical feminism, or the concepts and practices of feminis;
(applied) pedagogy cannot ga in ground due to the unclarified
relation~hip between theoretical and applied pedagoges.s
Qu~l:ty ass~ran~e sh?,~ld ?uarantee professional accountability.
As.M~halyOtto wntes, If this means that quality is defined by the
obJect~veval~es ~f any spec~fic,real or virtual community (...), this is
mer: mdo~tnnah~n. Pluralism means ensuring that no community
(~e It real, ~deologlcal or virtual) or its representatives can have the
nght to defme this quality."?
The number of publications on the topic also indicates the existence
or ~he l~ck of a professional discourss. We can only find a few
sociologica] studies based on quantitative research on the issue of
wo~~n' s p!~c~in our h~gher and public education in Hungary. ro The
fe~mlst errticism of this approach (which represents women as the
objects and not the subjects of research) is usualIy not published by
those -:ho ~ake decisions in the editorial boards of the very few
professional journals. Their selection, based on routines and traditions,
keeps gender studies away from the public discourse, questioning its
scholarly legitimacy.

120

As gender studies does not have an institutional background (those

who research and teach gender-related subjects have not really
demanded to legitimize it, for various reasons), the "accusation" that
it is not serious and not institutionalized is even grounded to a certain
extent."

The Lobbying Power of a Woman Professor in our Culture of Higher

Education
When elabarating on an academic topic and its professional standards,
it seems important to consider what chances its professars have to
make their project accepted, especialIy if it is about to criticize the
available knowledge base and the circumstances of its production.
Thus it is necessary to examine the lobbying power of a woman
professor and one who teaches about gender in the "no consensus"
culture of the higher educational system.F
The international discourse on gender studies includes relatively
detailed analyses related to this question. We might assume that the
situation in British or Scandinavian societies is more or less similar to
what is going on in our institutions of higher education.
These studies show that if woman professars want to shed light on
the lack of social sensitivity, on the fact that knowledge depends on
subjective circumstances, or on the fact that science is always
"situated," their position is dsadvantageous.P One reason for this is
that one of the most important criteria of schalarly legitimacy (all
based on traditional agreements or common grounds) is the carefully
guarded right to issue degrees based on "academicj scientific
capital."14
In the Hungarian higher education and academic circles professional recognition and fame is not quantified and most often
performative, as opposed to the international academic circles, in
which the number of publications and registered academic activities
function as professional measures. Thus the professional evaluation
of wo men who participate in the higher education and research
projects is not only not based on professional standards, but the lack

121

of these professional standards put their results and activities at the

mercy of the purely "malestream" power relations."
As f?r the equal opportunities
of women and men, our higher
educah.onal syst~m wo~d like to place itself outside the category of
the social, refernng to its autonomy and its independence from the
state an~ its decision-~aking
sphere. (At the very most, it may come
up.as a~ lssue. concernmg students, as an administrative expectation.)
This attittide IS als o legitimized by the fact that more than 50% of the
students earning diplomas are women.
Creatin!S.a professional politics that deals wi th gender and equal
o~portumtIes and making it work would shed light on aspects of
SCIences and education that would challenge their untouchable
cul~ural power. It would formulate questions about how certain
subjects get power, what their cultural and political commitments are
who the.be.n.eficiar~e~of this culture are. These questions would mak~
t~e partialities defmmg present networks visible. They would shed
light.o~ layers of the higher educational system that have been hidden,
and it IS exactly their concealment that makes the maintenance of the
my ths of ~eutrality and univers ali ty possible in the construction of
seholarship.

How to Interpret the Gender Discourse in Teacher Training

W~ile gender theories have innovated various disciplin es of social
SCIences and ch~llenged traditional theories and disciplines that
as.s~me~ the eXlste~ce of a universal culture and knowledge, the
~nhcal discourse defm~d ?y gender theories has not made such a huge
Impact on te~c~er :ralz:mg-despite
the fact that there are many
~o~e~
partICl'patmg
m teacher
training,
compared
to other
institutions of higher education.
. Ex~er~s ~ist ~ number of reasons explaining why this layer of
mter~lsclplmanty
has not appeared in educational sciences and the
prachce ~f ~eache.r tra.ir:ing. One of the soundest arguments states that
fully reahzmg this ~ntIcal and reflective approach and applying it in
place of the norn:atIve and traditional approaches, would have swept
those who apphed gender theories into personal and professional

conflicts that pedagogy would be unable to solve in its present state.

That is, the identification, exploration and criticism of gender and
power in society, with the intention to alter that society in a sphere
where there are so many women (in education) would upset the
institutionalized gender balance to such an extent that the educational
16

system's sustainability would be endangered.

The la ck of agender discourse in pedagogy and the curricula of
teacher training results in the fact that the pedagogy of teacher training
applies mostly ''borrowed'' theories, and represents the category of
gender and applies the practices related to it only accidentally and
superficially. But currently even this is nonexisten~ in Hungary; th.e
practice of teacher training does not recognize this approach, or It
falsely identifies it with theory borrowed from the psychology of
gender roles.
Gender-focused
criticism of educational
sciences fac es many
challenges, due to the fact that educational sciences are just in the
process of redefining themselves;
they' are str,:ggling .with the
recognition that they differ from the tradlhonal notion of SCIenceand
that their strength is located in their interdisciplinary nature.
From the gender studies stand point (its theoretical approaches and
practic es) it is worthwhile to examine whether after the p.hilosophi~al
and psychologicai paradigms of the past, the ne",:,paradIgm of sO~lal
sciences gives way to changes that can be considered progressl:,e,
whether the new paradigm has sensitive answers to the emergmg
social claims, and whether it reflects the understanding
of the
importance of social consciousness
and the responsibility
of the
educational

sciences.

NOTES
1 In the literature of educational sciences, the distinction between teacher
and pedagogue refers to differences in status and professional identity.
We might assume that the prevalent use of pedagogue is a means of hiding status and power relations. A pedagogue's activities include tasks that
are related to taking care of others, and based on a hidden system of expectations, which would reveal its characteristics tied to women's identities

123
122

5
6

10

in case of the nuanced professionalization of the profession. See my lecture at the Language, Ideology, Media conference (Szeged, September 8-9,
2005): "The Linguistic Representation of the Identity Constructions of
Female Pedagogues in the Textbooks Used for Teacher Training."
About the analysis of education as a technological process, and the difficulties of realizing gen der equality cf. Bryson, Mary, and de Castell,
Suzanne. "En/Gendering Equity: On Some Paradoxical Consequences of
Institutionalized Progra ms of Emancipation." Educational Theory 43, no. 3.
(Summer 1993): http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/Educational-Theory/
Contents/ 43_3_Bryson.asp.
I wrote about this course in a study entitled '''Hagyomnyos' pedaggia,
feminista pedaggia." ['Traditional' pedagogy, feminist pedagogy]
Educatio no. 3 (Autumn 1996):404-16.
The course is based on the following three sources: Wood, Julia T. Gendered
Lioes: Communication,
Gender, and Culture. Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth
Publishing Company, 1994; Weiner, Gaby. Feminisms in Education. An
Iniroduction. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1994; The Education
Feminist Reader. Edited by Stone, Lynda. New York-London: Routledge,
1994.
Hungary's college-level education will cease to exist with the introduction of the new progra ms (as defined by the Bologna system).
Hrubos, Ildik. "Strukturlis vltozsok, nemzetkzi trendek, hazai
folyamatok" [Structural changes, international trends, local processes]. In
Felsoktats j plyn. Jelents a felsoktatsrl, 2000 [Higher education on a
new track: A report on Higher education, 2000].Edited by Pter Lukcs.
Budapest: Oktatskutat Intzet, 2000.
Buda, Mariann. "A nevelsi rendszerek elemzsnek szksgessgrl"
[About the necessity of analyzing educational systems] j Pedaggiai Szemle
no. 11 (1997).
Zsolnai analyzes applied pedagogy and applied science. Zsolnai, Jzsef.
"Irodalomtants az ezredforduln" [Teaching literature at the tum of the
millennium]. Celldmlk: Pauz-Westermann, 1998,163.
Ott, Mihly. "rtkpluralizmus s nevels" [The pluralism of values and
education] j Pedaggiai Szemle no. 2 (2000); "Iskola s pluralizmus"
[School and pluralism]. Edited by Ott, Mihly. Edukci, Budapest, 1989.
E.g. Hrubos, Ildik. "A frfiak s nk iskolai vgzettsge s szakkpzettsge" [The qualifications of wo men and men], In Frfiu ralom-rsok
nkrl, frfiakrl, feminizmusrl
[Masculine domination: writings about
women, men, and ferninism], edited by Mikls Hadas. Budapest: Replika

..
.H b
Ild"k" A nk eslyei a felsoktatsban 1. s I!. Az
Kor" 19~4,. ru ?s, k ~'sfeltevse" [Women' s opportunities in higher
Europ~l BlzQottsag .er Ie and II of the European Committee] Magyar
t
educatlOn: ues lOns
.
.

~~~~~\10W

11 ite~:~;t~:~~:
~olnaif's cO~~~~~~F:se~~::~~o~~~~~~
b sed in the mterpretahon o gen
]
~Z:s~~A ;~aggia j rendszere c~s~vakban [The new system of pedagogy .
N
ti Tanknyvklado, 1996,44.
Budap~t: . e;z~~rgaard wrote about the interpretation of con~ens~al
12 Detre ane on
."
nsensual and Disensual Umverslty
and non-consensual cultur~. COd . NORA 9 no. 3 (2001):143-53.
and Power n Aca errua.
,
. ]
Cu 1~res. . Gen der ".
l . . krdsek" [Epistemological questiOns.
13 Hardmg, Sandra. Eplsztem 0o~al di
Sandra Whose Science? Whose
AET AS no. 4 (1993): 154- 6 ;4 ar ing.
.
ell University
Knowledge? Thinking From Women's Lives. Ithaca, NY: Com
11

Press, 1992.
sions "academic capita!" and
14 Dorte Marie Sondergaard uses the ex.pr~s
ts "Consensual and
"scientific capital" based on Bourdleu s concep..
d ." NORA
Disensual University Cultures: Gender and Power in Aca errua.
9, no. 3 (2001):14~-153, esp. 1~5..
Education. Edited by Davies, Sue,
15 Cnanging the Subvct: Women 111. Hlg~~stol PA Taylor and Francis, 1994;
Cathy Lubelska, and Jocey QduEmn:t. Hi'gherEducation." British Journal
Morley, Louise. "Change an qUIYm
of Education 18, no. 2 (.1~97l):R231.-42.
f Gender and Teacher Education in
16 Weiner Gaby. "A Cr itica evrew o
Europe:" Pedagogy, Culture and Society 8, no. 2 (2000):233-47.

125
124