Figure 1.-- The photo was taken in 1948 in Pilis, Hungary, on the first school day. On the school backpack bag in the foreground we see an image of Little Red Riding Hood. The back pack was identicl to yhe ones used in Germany by porimary-grade cchildren. It looks to us like father must have lovingly created the design. Yhe two girls may be sisters. /i>

Hungary for four centurues was controlled by a German (austrian) momarch yy and isstill infkudnced by he lkarger Germnic world and economy. This includes education. German education trends influenced educationa systems throughout Eastern nd Central Europe. In the case of Hungary, but was close to Germny abd part of the Hpsburg Austrian Empire. which became pty of the Austro-Hungrian Empire (1868). Austria was of course part of the Germanic world. As concerns the education of gurls there were common threads throughout Europe and to a lesser extent the United States. The eduction of girls was seen of much less imprtant than the education of boys. Thus we see girls in primary school, but far fewer in secondary and university level education. In addition, Hungary was not as developed as Germnany with lrgely agricultural economy. Another factor is minorities. There was a substantial Slovakian populstion which was primarily a rural peasant popultion, which was less well educasted than the majority Hungarian popultion. These limits on female education did not change substantially until the Communists seized power. The reason for the differences in the eduvation of boys and girls was of course long established cultural patterns which also mean that most women did not wok out side the home. Some two thirds of Hungarian women at the time if World War II did not have jobs, but married and maintained the home. Apparently female literacy was high. An author suggests 10 percent, but that does sound high to us. Only 4 to 6 years of education were common. The author describes secondary eduction for girls was 'very rare, abd, in fact, obtaind only by girls in the ruling wealthy circles'. [Ézéchy] This strikes us as Communist propaganda. We suspect that many middle-class girls attended secondary schools. The autors then describes how much improvement has been made in education or girls in Communist Hungay. As well as the increrased employment opportunities. Here this sounds more reasonable. Of course unmentioned is the even greater improvements in Western Europe during the same time period, especily in the wage levels and living standards.

Created: 10:15 PM 1/22/2022
Last updated: 10:15 PM 1/22/2022