Hungarian video to promote having children sparked controversy

Recently, an infotainment video sparked some controversy on the internet. In the video, Katalin Novák, Hungary’s Minister for Families, tries to provide an answer to how women could be successful and what they should not do to achieve this.

The video was produced by a pro-government social media community, Axióma. It is evident that the video targeted women to promote families having children, as it is the government’s goal to try and counteract the ageing society by encouraging people to have more children.

There might be some issues or rather ambiguous statements in the video, however, that might be easily twisted.

Katalin Novák starts the video by making the parallel to life not being a recipe saying: “I like baking. I rarely diverge from the recipe, […] if I mix the ingredients the appropriate way and order, I consistently get the same results. […] Sadly, life is not like that”. The depiction of the first scene behind the Minister for Families is the kitchen and, according to Human Rights Watch, it is misogynistic propaganda that aims to “drive home the ‘your place is in the kitchen’ message for women”.

Katalin Novák then proceeds to make suggestions about what women could or rather should not do to be able to become successful and to have a fulfilled life. She highlights that everyone’s lives are different, and people living in different conditions have different desires and skills.

The Minister for Families said that “Women should not believe that they have to constantly compete with men and spend every moment of their lives comparing themselves to others, to men.

Women should not need to work in the same position and earn at least as much as men do, and they should not need to choose between having children and their career. Women should not believe that they cannot choose freely and that women cannot achieve fulfilment as a mother by living to care for their families”.

The video suggests that women should embrace their roles as caregivers in a family and embrace the possibility of giving birth. Katalin Novák highlights that having children and a family is the responsibility of a lifetime. As Human Rights Watch puts it: “Rather, women should relish their roles as child-bearers and caregivers, […] adding that Hungarian women should not give up their “privileges over some misguided fight for emancipation.

Not only is this offensive and patronizing to millions of women in Hungary who struggle for equal treatment”.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the reports of domestic violence against women have sharply risen in Hungary and in all of Europe. In May 2020, the Hungarian government did not ratify the Istanbul Convention that aims to protect women from violence. According to HRW, the Covid-19 pandemic also increased the pay gap between men and women, and the burden of unpaid care for their families is also weighing on women. HRW says that women work in sectors that are more likely to face job or wage losses.

The article on Human Rights Watch suggested that with the infotainment video aimed to promote and popularise having children, “the government chooses to view women as ‘baby-making machines’. Whether you agree or not is the matter of forming your own opinion, although, unfortunately, recent events might influence heavily one’s impression of the video.

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Source: Hrw.org, Telex.hu