Csaba Dupcsik – Olga Toth

Familism instead of Feminism: how socialization and education reserve and reproduce

conservative gender roles – the Hungarian Case

Genderwise: The role of men as agents of change in reconciling work and family life

17-20 May 2006Barcelona

Familism instead of Feminism

• I. Presence of Familism in the Hungarian society – some data to show it.

• II. Historical background of Familism

• III. How socialization contributes to reproduction of Familism - an example: media

Attitudes and behaviour

During the last half of 20th century:• Important changes in the sphere of gender

roles and family.• Similarly important changes in the attitudes,

values.Hungary: is it a premodern, very traditional and

patriarchal country (as attitudes show) or a modern European country (as real behaviour shows in some topic)?

Paid work – the reality

80,1 79,9 77,369 71,2 75

64,1 63 58,2 74,5 70,2

70,8 66,4 65,8 57,9 56,3 51,2 50,8 50,946,4 46,2 45,4

0

20

40

60

80

100

women men

Employment rates for population aged 15 to 64, 2005 (Eurostat)

Paid work – Attitudes 1

„A job is all right, but what most women really want is home and children” (ISSP 2003)

63

21

16

64

26

10

62

24

14

73

20

7

32

15

54

62

15

23

27

37

36

42

32

26

18

25

57

44

27

29

32

27

41

63

19

18

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

agree neither… nor… disagree

Hungary Slovakia Spain Netherlands GB France

Paid work – Attitudes 2

„A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after home and family” (ISSP 2003)

36

31

33

50

30

20

43

25

32

62

19

19

11

5

84

53

13

34

5

19

76

23

25

52

7

9

84

38

23

39

411

85

47

20

33

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

agree neither… nor… disagree

Hungary Slovakia Spain Netherlands GB France

Participation in domestic work – the reality

Structure of use of time – how much longer time of the total work (paid work/study + domestic work) for a women, (minutes per day), 2005

75 70 64 65

37 31

12

38

00

20

40

60

80

Participation in domestic work – the reality

Participation of the domestic work of the active employed men and women aged 18 to 60, Hungary 1963-2000 (time share of women = 100%)

35,2 39,1 43,2 43 44,7

0

20

40

60

80

100

1963 1977 1986 1993 2000

menwomen

Participation in domestic work – attitudes (ISSP 2003)

„Men ought to do a larger share of household work than they do now.”

56

29

15

57

33

10

54

25

21

51

32

17

93

43

82

9

9

51

37

12

59

30

11

55

35

10

69

22

9

73

22

5

75

17

8

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

agree neither… nor… disagree

Hungary Slovakia Spain Netherlands GB France

„Very thankful for the help”

„…the Hungarian men participated to domestic work in the lowest degree, but the Hungarian women were very thankful even for this little help; according to the women in the other questioned countries they were pleased with the performance

of their husbands in the

highest degree. „

M.P. Hungarian female

demographer

(Mikola Voroncov’s cartoon)

Children – the realityLive births per 1000 persons in Hungary , 1876-2004

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Children in European perspective

Total fertility rate (Eurostat)

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

1970 1980 1990 2000 2004

HungarySlovakiaSpainNetherlandUKFranceItaly

Children – Attitudes (ISSP 2003)

61

26

13

77

14

9

27

29

44

47

25

28

22

9

69

51

15

34

11

15

74

15

25

60

9

20

71

23

26

51

20

25

55

47

25

28

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

agree neither… nor… disagree

Hungary Slovakia Spain Netherlands GB France

„People without kids: lead empty lives.”

Roots of Familism

• Until 1945 the right-wing parties wich had dominated the political life, raised to the centre of their ideologies the notion of the family. „God – homeland – family”, sounded one of the most beloved right-wing slogan.

Roots of Familism – the 1950s

• New model:

the policewomen

Roots of Familism – the 1950s

Emblematic

figure: the

tractor-driver girl

Roots of Familism – the 1950s

• Propaganda picture from the early 1950s:

“Young mothers nurse their children in the Mátyás Rákosi Infants’ Nursery”

Roots of Familism – the 1970s

Kádár (the leader of Communist Party) in the circle of young textile worker girls. „You must understand that the life free from cares and the larger comfort give just a quickly passing joy. If you save yourselves from the bother with children you may get a temporary advantage but you deprive yourselves from all of the beauty of the COMPLETE LIFE and long-lasting happyness.”

Roots of Familism – 2003

God – Homeland –

Family in the 21th

Century

Media analysis – Written media 1

By the research of P. Margit (interviews with journalists in various newspapers, secondary analysis of other researches, content analysis of newspapers):

• Representation of females in leading position is lower in the newspapers than that is in the reality. 33 % of persons in leading position of economy is female – representation of them in the newspapers is about 11 %.

• Although 1/3 of journalists are female – newspapers are dominated by male topics. Even female journalists prefer male

topics. „I am afraid of writing about female topics. I am afraid of ‘coming out’. I would prefer to find a male colleague to write the article with. Nowadays I do not write about female topics. Not at all.”

Media analysis – Written media 1

• Feminism: as a swear-word. Female journalists try to avoid this

label. „Even my colleagues began to keep a distance from me. They though I were a little bit cracked because I had made feminist broadcast.”

• Feminist or sensitive female issues (as violence against women or abortion) are labelled lie or a ridiculous thing. „I wrote an article about the sexual abuse inside marriage. They (male colleagues) found it ridiculous.”

• Prejudices against female journalists when they write about highly prestigous topics. „He said, he has not thought that this article were written by a female. And why? I asked. Because the high standard of it.”

Media analysis – Written media 2

Content analysis of Nők Lapja (Women’s Magazine) a 55 years old weekly.

Gender roles in the 1970s and in the 1990s.

Analysis of interviews with women and : is he/she an ordinary person or a famous one? What is the main reason of interviewing him/her? What additional information was presented? What is the hidden message of the text?

Nők Lapja in the 1970s and in the 1990s – a short outlook of comparison - WORK

1970s• Most of the

interviews (45 %) are work-oriented. Blue collar workers and intellectuals

• Work as elevating, noble part of life. „The joy of work.”

1990s• Just 23 % of

interviews are work-oriented. Women in male-type jobs, with female-type tasks!

• Work as burden, fatigue and exploitation. „...they dream about easier days.”

• Males as experts.

Nők Lapja in the 1970s and in the 1990s – a short outlook of comparison - FAMILY

1970s

• One-third of interviews are family oriented. Half of them are dealing with family conflits. „That was the real reason of our divorce that my wife made more money and got a higher position.”

• No males in non-stereotypical roles.

1990s• One-fifth of

interviews are family oriented. Family is a place of harmony. Avoidance of conflits: „...whether we should present such a tragic life to our readers?”

• No males in non-stereotypical roles.

Nők Lapja in the 1970s and in the 1990s – a short outlook of comparison - OTHERS

1970s• Very few interview

about political activity – escape from overpoliticized world.

• No info about sexuality, real equality. Stereotype gender roles.

1990s• Lack of politics/civic

activity. Politics as the men’s business.

• A nasty word: Feminism.

• Cosmo-girls and housewives - as two stages of life. Stereotype gender roles.

„The ESSENCE remained unchanged. THE REAL WOMAN is soft, she depends on the

love of men, and she expects to be supported.”

„In my opinion everything went wrong when we (i.e. women)

started to go to work guided by our self-consciousness.”

Citations from Nők Lapja (Women’s Magazine) 1991 and 1995.

Who is the most truthworthy amongst

these media persons?

Acél Anna

Süveges Gergő

Pálffy István

Varga Edit

Nika György

Nagy Judit

nobody

everybody

Novodomszky Éva

0 5 10 15 20 25