Why are women missing from Hungarian secondary history education and political decision making in modern times?

Absztrakt (kivonat)

This thesis investigates the possible reasons why women are hard to find in history and explores whether there is a connection to the scarcity of women in politics in Hungary. Through the examination of the methodological approaches of history, several problems of the discipline were unfolded such as event-orientation, adherence to the positivist approach and fragmentation. Women’s history, gender history and feminist history, fields of the discipline dedicated to research women figures, women’s life through the ages are usually separated from other branches (as those branches from the others) and it is questionable whether they will ever meet to establish a historical narrative together. The other focus point is the effect of Hungarian politics on education. Through analyzing the content of the National Core Curriculum it became evident that with the change of the governmental party in 2010 there is a visible tone shift in the conveyed core values of the education from a near Eurocentric worldview to promoting patriotism. Secondary education is in desperate need to change structurally and to untie itself from politics. The solution to the cultural and social disparity between sexes is to start a conversation, and learning about women figures, women’s life in secondary education history class could be a place to start.