“I always felt the odd one out”: Work-life balance among graduate Romani women in Hungary

Durst, Judit and Fejős, Anna and Nyírő, Zsanna (2014) “I always felt the odd one out”: Work-life balance among graduate Romani women in Hungary. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 59 (1). pp. 165-190. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

This paper analyses work orientations and family formation strategies among college-educated Romani women in Hungary. We demonstrate through our in-group and inter-group intersectional analysis of the life stories of 53 women, gathered by in-depth interviews, how preferences regarding work and family are constructed in this group. We argue that there is no such thing as ‘free choice’ for our women in their struggle to reach their desired work-life balance. One of the hidden costs of their upward mobility, apart from the identity conflicts of many of them, is their difficulties in partner selection.Our research has also demonstrated how life-story narratives can illuminate the complex interplay between gender, class and ethnicity in relation to the construction of individual preferences regarding (paid) work and family. We argue, on the basis of our findings, that social categories such as class and ethnicity are still “strong” social facts that can shape people’s lives and construct their preferences.Comparing our high-achieving Romani sample with a sample of non-Roma Hungarian women having the same educational level, we aim to challenge established perceptions and break stereotypes about the “traditional” Romani and “modern” Hungarian woman.

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