International Solidarity as the Cornerstone of the Hungarian Post-War Socialist Women's Rights Agenda in the Magazine Asszonyok

This article analyses five years of the magazine Asszonyok (Women) the main forum for discussing women's rights between 1945 and 1949 in Hungary. The magazine was published by the Magyar Nők Demokratikus Szövetsége (the Hungarian Women's Democratic Federation), an umbrella organization created mostly by women from the communist movement. This analysis is centred around the idea of internationalism and how it became a means for socialist women's emancipation, proof of the political power of the new women's organization, and a platform of political education. It also symbolized the new era of peace after the war, peace becoming one of the slogans of the socialist women's movement globally. The broadening international platform of transfers became a terrain where political languages about race, class, and gender were slowly but steadily taking shape. Solidarity with women across the globe became one of the main tenets of communist women in Hungary. However, solidarity had its limits. As is shown here, identification with the right political agenda was even more important than aspects of race and class. This was one of the most important ways in which socialist women's rights and feminism were diverging from each other, despite the broad spectrum of shared elements on their agenda

Communism · Cornerstone · Democracy · Emancipation · Feminism · Internationalism (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · European history and politics · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law

• Women's Rights in Cold War Europe

  Celia Donert•Past & Present•2013

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