The Significance of Existing EU Sex Equality Law for Women in the New Member States. The Case of Hungary

What does EU sex equality law mean for the new ‘post-socialist’ Member States of the EU? Against the context of the legacy of ‘socialist emancipation’, and the backlash which followed the 1989/90 revolutions, this article analyses the contributions made by EU sex equality law to the legal position of women in the new Member States, and the potential for EU sex equality law to improve the position of women in those Member States. Using the case study of Hungary, it analyses the measures taken by one such Member State to comply with the acquis communautaire on sex equality. The conclusions are that EU sex equality law brings much of value to women in the new Member States, but that the future challenge is to instrumentalize and embed the EU sex equality acquis so that its promise becomes a practical reality for those women.