It often seems in Hungary as if reality experienced by women and the public discourse on the situation of women in society hardly coincided. While scandals are reported one after the other over sexual harassment and violence within personal relationships and numerous indexes and statistics are published about serious and unjust inequalities between women and men, large sections of the society are simply left untouched by such news. The problem of gender equality revokes either the memories of the strained and lopsided egalitarian policies of state socialism or is considered to be a kind of import from the West, a „ hobby of the upper classes ” having nothing to do with daily struggles.

This publication responds to this situation. In other words, it deals with women ’ s affairs. The authors wanted to find out what „ women ’ s affairs ” are for Hungarian women and what does the society, what do women and men think about these affairs. It maps up the difficulties and obstacles women are confronted with in everyday life; what language is used, to what extent is this the expression of gender inequality and if the way these problems are addressed compares to the approach of activists and politicians dealing with the situation of women. It is also discussed to what extent the topics dominating the public discourse and the most frequent messages of politics and movements targeted at women are reflected in women ’ s own stories. Based on polls and group interviews, the study shows where Hungarian women expect help from for their most burning problems and what they think of the role of their partners, families, the smaller communities, NGOs, employers and politics.