Technikatörténeti szemle 23. (1997-98)

TANULMÁNYOK - Vámos Éva Katalin: Women’s Opportunities of Studying and Practising Engineering in Hungary from 1895 to 1968 (On the example of Budapest Technical University and its women students)

In 1936 the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture asked for being allowed to raise, on special occasions, women's admittance permitted there to the extent of 5%. Their letter reads as follows: "At its first regular meeting on the 9th inst., when the.Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the Royal Hungarian Palatine József Technical University discussed the admission of first-year students, a single female student could be admitted as first-year student of architecture, in accordance with the decrees at present in vigour. - Taking into account the fact that nearly all of our graduated architects were able to find employment, the Faculty is respectfully asking to be allowed to admit Felicia Thier-Szabó and Krisztina Mórocz as first-year students of architecture, beyond the prescribed number, and disregarding the decree cited. - We estimate their request to be grantable so much the more as both are children of engineers. - Budapest, September 17,1936. Signed: University Dean." The undersecretary of state mentioned had no objection to the admission beyond the prescribed number. However, he did not change the decree.

25 As a result of all the regulations that sometimes widened but, in most instances, restricted women's possibilities, the percentage of women at Budapest Technical University started in the post-World-War I period from a very low level and hardly increased (apart from the students of economics) until World War II (Table 1.) During the years ot the War and the first 5 years that followed it, the percentage of female students more than doubled. Their number rose only to about 3,5 times of the pre-war figure. This shows that the number of male students, even if still prevailing, rose somewhat slower. This can be easily understood as in wartime men are, in general, wanted for other activities than studying. The real increase in the number of female students occurred in the two decades after the war. In spite of this rapid increase, the number of women never reached 20% of that of total students. After 1968, great politico-economical changes took place in the country, with the advent of the so-called "New Economic Mechanism". This period will, however, not be dealt with in the present paper. We only included these data to show that the increase in the percentage of female students at Budapest Technical University slowed down considerably after 1968. Table 1 Female students' number and percentage at Budapest Technical University 1920/21-1977/78

26 Academic Year Number of Students Female Students as % of Total 1920/21-1929/30 4 0.2 1930/31-1939/40 97* 4.4 1940/41 -1949/50 346 9.9 1950/51-1959/60 1137 11.5 1960/61-1969/70 2081 17.0 1970/71-1977/78 1965 18.8 "Without the Faculty of Economics: 7