Nem vész el, csak átalakul?
Not Lost, Only Transformed?

An Attempt at Applying the Concept of Neoliberal Neopatriarchy to the Case of Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to apply the concept of neoliberal neo-patriarchy (Campbell 2014) through the example of elderly care and its contextual problems in present day Hungary. According to the theory of neoliberal neo-patriarchy, gender inequalities have been maintained in spite of economic growth and the spread of women in the labor market, contrary to what classic modernization theories had hypothesized. However, as we know from the work of Fraser (2016) and others, in absence of the rethinking and restructuring of the gendered division of reproductive labor, there is an internal tension within the logic of neoliberal capitalism: the woman who is projected to be present on the labor market is the same woman who is expected to perform a variety of reproductive tasks. In the public form of neoliberal gender regime (Walby 2011) the market, namely women from a lower social class, will be the ones undertaking this work, while in the domestic neoliberal gender regime female members of the family will perform it. Based on the results of a recent Hungarian study entitled Women’s Affairs 2018 (Gregor and Kováts 2018) I present how, due to the lack of social services, middle aged Hungarian women are left with the tasks of caring for the elderly, thereby enhancing the reproduction of unequal gender relations in society.

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