Women’s Advocacy at the Center of Hungarian Conference

The aim of the conference on Women’s Advocacy in Christian Democracy was to raise awareness of the presence, need for, and promotion of women’s advocacy from a conservative perspective in Hungary and the Carpathian Basin.

One of the opening speakers of the event was Júlia Borbála Horváth, a researcher and member of the Women’s Caucus of the KDNP, the smaller governing party in Hungary, who spoke about her experience as an anthropologist, and how she believes that the direction of women’s advocacy does not fit into the Christian-conservative value system at present.

We want women’s advocacy that is not liberal but conservative, with a national sensibility, because we are lagging behind,”

she said.

Horváth said that currently the proportion of women in higher education is higher than that of men. The question now is how women can develop and make use of their talents.

The researcher also said that the term ‘feminism’ is unfortunate, as the movement has done much to make the term a swear-word. Today, a feminist is generally understood to be a woman with strong ideas and expectations, she pointed out. “It is always difficult to introduce new terms, and today ‘liberal’ has become ‘radical,’ ‘feminism’ has become ‘masculinist’, so there is a linguistic and conceptual divide,” she explained.

Horváth continued that liberal feminism had made women believe and inspired them to rebel for equality and empowerment.

Conservative feminism, on the other hand, is a new direction, one that is sober, values-based, and sees men as partners rather than competitors.

“Both sexes are equal before God, and that is the direction we must take,” said the researcher. She added that if extreme progression continues at its current, massive rate, women will face huge struggles in the future.

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