Our University’s Women Engineers in Harmony with the Past and the Present - A Presentation Paper from the Organizers of the ICL-IGIP 2025 Conference

Abstract

We would like to give you some information about our university, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, our Technical Pedagogical Department, our colleagues and the path that women in Hungary have taken towards higher education and engineering. Our history begins in the times of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, spans two world wars, then touches the 55 years of our country’s economic, military and political existence under the Soviet Union and ends in today’s days. In a separate chapter and in more detail, we present our pride, Esther Pécsi, the first Hungarian female engineer, based on the documentation and research of our university. The position of women changed greatly after the Second World War, and during the period of the socialist state, in which women had to become equal to men in all areas, this became even more pronounced. We interview a female engineer who was involved in the planning of the first prefabricated housing estates (panel construction) about this period. Our work is a historical outline from many perspectives. It is a scientific collection of the Hungarian engineering education of women, presented from the perspective and focus of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, with which we would like to bring you a little closer to our university and arouse your interest to visit us in 2025 in the sense of a common knowledge transfer.