Hungarian State Schools in the Education of Women (1806–1940)

Abstract

Today, it is self-evident that a girl can go to school at any level of public education and can also participate in higher education under the same conditions as boys. But this was not always the case. Girls have gradually been allowed to participate at higher and higher levels in the public education system, and this study traces this process from 1806 to the Second World War. After that, co-education was allowed, and since then there has been no legal distinction between boys’ and girls’ education in our country. To date, there have been several studies on the education of girls in public schools in Hungary (both on women’s history and the history of education), but no comprehensive work on the legal regulations from this period has been done. This study aims to at least partially address this need. With the exception of the first four years of primary education, the period has been one of segregated education throughout, with girls being prepared, at least in part, for female roles. The demands of the times and of society, especially during and after the First World War, increasingly required girls to be educated to a higher and higher level so that they could enter the world of work, as well as take up family roles. It should be stressed that the demand for girls’ secondary education was and remains far greater than girls’ educational institutions could actually provide. The real change came after the Second World War with the introduction of co-education.