Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 405–409, 1999 Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0277-5395/99 $–see front matter PII S0277-5395(99)00041-2 405 Pergamon URGES AND OBSTACLES: CHANCES FOR FEMINISM IN EASTERN EUROPE Judit Acsády Sociology Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary Synopsis — This article debates the potential for building feminism in Hungary—a country where, under State Socialism, women’s emancipation was considered already resolved. More recently, under the economic impact of globalization and the re-establishment of the market economy, full employment and the state provision of social services are disappearing. Women’s groups are now split between, for example, re- claiming women’s traditional status in motherhood, and saving state nurseries. The impact of such con- tradictions, and the conflicts between feminism and tradition, are illustrated here by an analysis of how feminist issues are debated in the Hungarian media. This article concludes that, in times of change, fem- inists face the challenge of allowing time for a process of healing in society, as well as facing differences between women locally and nationally, before being able to build a feminism that challenges wider power relationships at national and international levels. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. In this article 1 I want to discuss the chances for feminism in Hungary where the policies of state socialism have drastically modified the meaning of emancipation and where, until re- cently, second-wave feminism of the west has not had much impact. To illustrate this, I will present the way in which the question of femi- nism has been discussed recently in the Hun- garian press. In non-western, less modernised countries, feminism has a relatively narrower social base, and it almost only attracts women from educated, urban, middle-class, “western- ised” backgrounds (Narayan, 1989). These feminists: . . . must function within the context of a powerful tradition that, although it systemat- ically oppresses women, also contains within itself a discourse that confers a high value on women’s place in the general scheme of things. Not only are the roles of wife and mother highly praised, but women also are seen as the cornerstones of the spiritual well- being of their husbands and children, ad- mired for their supposed higher moral, spiri- tual qualities. (Narayan, 1989, p. 255) Narayan adds that these powerful traditions praise a woman only as long as she keeps the place prescribed for her, and that if feminists want to formulate their argument in these cul- tures they must emphasise the negative sides of female experience (Narayan, 1989, pp. 255– 269). That is, the criticism in this sense must focus on the question of how women are op- pressed in the given society. The problem is that the majority of women in these cultures do not necessarily interpret their position: “the prescribed place”, as a subordinated one. Very often they would not even lament about the nature of this position and they would not want to judge if it is good or bad, they just take the prescribed position and the roles for granted. This already causes a tension between tradi- tional beliefs (even where they have already begun to erode) and new feminist criticism. The above-mentioned argument could serve as a starting point of an inquiry in East Central Europe as well. It seems reasonable to ask whether women refuse feminism on the very rational basis of not wanting to risk those quasi-prestigious positions that the respect of traditional roles and expectations promise for them, or whether they even have the perspec- tives to choose because they either have no in- formation about feminism or are confronted with only discouraging images concerning women’s organising.