ABSTRACT
Feminist Review No 39, Winter 1991 Feminist Network of Hungary
During the past forty years, just as before the Second World War, women have not been able to play an active role in social and political life. In the countries behind the Iron Curtain women could not join in the positive and progressive actions taken by women's movements arround the world. Despite the recent political changes that have taken place in Hungary, women still must face their virtual nonrecognition as full citizen.
The founding of the Feminist Network demonstrates the persistence of needs long declared nonexistent. The Feminist Network aims to achieve the recognition of specific female interests and points of view, the participation of women in public life and decision-making, the realization of women's and men's real emancipation, and the abolition of all kinds of discrimination. We intend to change the political, economical and employment practices that have been perpetuating women's current disadvantageous situation both in society and in the family. Through dialogue and public debates we wish to reshape structure of interests so as to make possible a real, rather than a forced and false harmonization of interests.
We will fight for the improvement our life conditions, our right to work, our autonomy, our health and for our basic and broadly defined existential security.
We we hope to join in a united Europe, we are convinced that these specific women's inerests are also the values of a civilized society, serving women, men and childrean.
The 1949 Constitution recognized women's emancipation. In practice, this was reduced to the right to work, and under the given economic conditions this right became necessity. This emancipation granted by the state without any previous public discussion or grass-roots organization in a basically conservative society with a double standard of morality has only succeeded in producing deeply uncertain and self-doubting women prone to accept the scapegoat role they are often given.
In order for this situation to change:
The impact of the last forty years on women's roles, status, and self-conceptions of male—female relations, and on family, must be analyzed and these analyses must be widely disseminated.
The current efforts of the renewed and strengthened conservative religious groups, aided by the mass media to secure the dominance of their moral views in society must be opposed.
The parliament, with its overwhelming majority of men as members, must be prevented from making decisions in haste and without social debate, especially such decisions that can have particularly far-reaching consequences for women.
If these tasks are not accomplished, the great majority of women—surrendering the few positive developments of the past forty years—will have to choose resignation and submission in order to survive. The former omnipotence of state power, disabling or deforming all members of society, destroyed support communities and exploited the natural forces of human life, including human relationships. Women, men and children have been forced to bear their burdens alone. Women have become a bad but cheap workforce. State social policies have made them responsible for the size of the population. With the degradation of human relationships they have become sexual objects. The lack of decent educational institutions and service infrastructure has ensured both that they remain unpaid household servants, and that they do not have chance with men in the world of paid work.
Those few who have been in sufficiently favourable situations to become independent modem women, have seldom found similarly modern men to be their companions. Authoritarianism and paternalism, in addition to their everyday burdens, have also made men vulnerable (rising mortality rates) and distorted their persolanities. The consequences of their inability to renounce their privileges and dominance shapes private and, public life in Hungary even today.
The Feminist Network commits itself to the goal of extending to children, women, and men equally opportunities for self-realization with regard to gender, religion, nationality, racial origin or social class. From this it follows that our understanding of emancipation is universal and is directed toward the whole of society. To this end, the Feminist Network demands that effective steps to be taken against unemployment, that the employment structure which is so disadvantageous to women be changed; that the formation and operation of strong trade unions with proportionate numbers of women in leadership positions be facilitated within all ownership sectors of the economy; and that the introduction of new technologies not be permitted to force women into jobs with low prestige and obsolete technology. Legal opportunities should be created for flexible working working hours and part-time work for both men and women.
The concept of work must be redefined so that the work required to care for family and children and the tasks needed to sustain everyday life should be included within the sphere of important activities deserving social and material recognition. Men and women must be assured equal rights and obligations to participate in these activities. A high-quality system of childcare institutes and family services must be created out of public funds. A free and high-quality health system, including a more enlightened women's health network, is essential for the entire population. The availability of abortion must be legally guaranteed and contraception must become a responsibility of men as well as women.
Social and moral constraints which penalize forms of cohabitation outside of the traditional marriage and family must be struggled against and must not charecterize state policy. The possibility for participation in social insurance must be created for and extended to every man and woman ragardless of family status, Strong efforts must be made to increase society's tolerance of all otherness—whether cultural, sexual, racial or religious—and its acceptance of mentally and physically disabled people, and of pensioners. The books and activities of nurseries and schools must be examined critically in order to prevent the continued propagation of obsolete and destructive prejudices regarding gender roles.
We protest against violence within families against women and children, which is widely known about but not discussed. Now is the time for it to be given the public attention it deserves, for only with public education can this tragic situation be ameliorated. We urge stricter and stronger judicial handling of such cases, as well as the creation of refuges, telephone and taxi crisis services for those suffering from such violence.
The feminist movement an organic part of Western democracy. The political activity of feminists is aiemd at overcoming those aspects of male-female relations which are based on a relation of unequal power. We too are working for the real—not simply formal or legal—equality between the sexes in every area of social life. We hope finaly to free the word ‘feminist’ from the misunderstanding and uninformed prejudices under which it currently labours.
Feminist
Szerbutca8
1056 Budapest
utca
Network 8
