I cannot believe that in this country, where women have proven their abilities in an exceedingly broad range of professions, they would be unwilling to play a much bigger role in shaping politics. A glimpse at the universities tells me that the number of women among the professors and researchers is not much lower than that of the men. A look at the courts of justice also reflects a balanced male–female ratio.

The situation is also pretty close to equal among attorneys. In health care women carry the brunt of the burden and women are the primary caregivers for and educators of our most precious possessions, our children, taking them from pre-school to high school graduation. And the “fair sex” is not far behind in the scientific world either. If the reason behind this artificially induced low ratio in parliament were merely to protect us from overwork or unhealthy hours then maybe women should be banned from working night-shifts.

Allegedly the right-wing party alliance, which won the elections in a landslide, decided to favor male candidates to attract the highest number of votes because an internal survey, taken exclusively for Fidesz use, showed that voters trusted male candidates far more than female ones.

This may well be true. But if it is, shouldn’t everything be done to change public opinion. Let’s look at Rákosmente, a section of Budapest’s District 17, where Mónika Dunai, a teacher who is highly respected in her locality though politically unknown, won a sweeping victory over the man running against her as the left-wing candidate, receiving over five thousand more votes than her rival.

This new Member of Parliament has been proving her prowess in local government politics since the regime change of 1990. Among the voters in this outer section of the city, considered a swing district, the fact that Dunai is female apparently didn’t bother anyone. She will have very few female colleagues in parliament – together, they’ll be nineteen overall. They deserve everyone’s admiration.

We have them to thank for advancing by four places on the world rankings compiled on the basis of how many women there are in a given country’s legislature. We are now ahead of Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, and even Botswana. Sadly, we are still behind Ukraine, Bahrain, and Malaysia. In fact, although this is really hard to believe, even Saudi Arabia is ahead of us.

That Arab nation has twice as many women with a voice in national politics as we do. Considering that 31.5 percent of the legislators in Zimbabwe, that 40.2 percent in Nicaragua and that 44.8 percent in South Africa are women, it becomes obvious that here in the heart of Europe, the people who are responsible for the low level of prestige Hungarian women in politics “enjoy” in the 21st century should be ashamed of themselves.

A month ago Ildikó Gáll Pelcz, who currently heads the list of right-wing candidates for the European Parliament, said she did not think the problem of so few women in politics would be resolved within her lifetime. However, in addition to human rights considerations, the tenet declaring the equality of women in the Constitution makes it imperative that this important issue be rectified within the foreseeable future. The issue should be debated in Parliament.

Source: Magyar Nemzet

Translated by Budapest Telegraph