Female Forward International
Female Politicians Encouraged to Take Over Orban’s Illiberal Regime
The number of women in politics is still low in East-European countries. Women face more challenges in politics than men. The Indítsuk Be Magyarországot Foundation (connected to Momentum Movement) wants to fight this by its new project called Hungarian Women’s Academy , which wants to motivate women to engage in politics.
Women's participation in public life tends to be pyramid-shaped: the more we move toward smaller settlements, the more female politicians we meet. This implies that women have the same political ambitions as men, but somehow only a few female leaders make it to the top. Women in politics face resistance, discrimination, social stereotypes and double standards. They face myriad challenges in politics. Female politicians are judged by how they look and how they are dressed, more than their ideas, but when they do express their views and opinions, they are held to a much higher standard than men do.
The proportion of women in parliament in all post-sovjet countries are around 10-20%. In Hungary it is 12.2%, in Slovakia it is 20.7% and in Romania it is 19.8%. While the trend in most countries around the world is to see an increase in the proportion of women in parliaments, Hungary has fallen from 66th to 149th in 20 years, according to IPU figures.
Hungary is considered to be a conservative country when it comes to gender roles. Moreover, the public rhetoric in the country made family and child-rearing at the top of the list of women’s tasks, politics is a field for strong males according to the governing party. Despite a positive shift in the Hungarian society regarding the political role of women in recent years (Momentum had two female candidates on their European Parliamentary list, also Democratic Coalition had a female lead candidate on the EP elections), the share of women in politics has not changed radically since the regime change. Currently there are no quotas or anything else that would empower females to take a step forward and become the leaders they could be. That is one of the reasons why female empowerment has become a priority for Indítsuk Be Magyarországot Foundation. As a result the Foundation has decided to launch its own Women’s Academy which is the very first one in the region that aims to empower its participants to lead in making a change in Hungarian politics.
By educating, supporting and empowering females the Hungarian society gets closer to equality and motivates women leaders to start their grassroot movements as the true engines of changes. Furthermore by promising a new, fresh political culture, female politicians and role models could be one of the biggest threats to Orban’s illiberal and unequal regime.
Anikó Paróczai is the Director of the International Office of the liberal party Momentum and a member of the local council in the 19th district Budapest. Before going into politics, Anikó was a civil rights activist, fighting for equal education for all and the rights of the youth. She participated in the German Federal Elections as an International Election Observer Coordinator, and led the European Citizens Initiative “More Education!” in Hungary in 2017.
Hungarian Women’s Academy is a project launched by the Indítsuk Be Magyarországot Foundation and supported by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. This project aims to educate and empower women to get engaged in politics. Among its goals belong the rise in the number of women elected in Hungary or connecting active female participants in politics.
Indítsuk Be Magyarországot Foundation is the party foundation of Momentum Movement, it was founded at the end of 2018. Ever since the foundation is working on issues that are crucial in the Hungarian society, like civic participation, media freedom, anti corruption and equality.