Orbán’s government justifies its decision to scrap gender studies by stating the low interest in the course, which will only affect twenty students. The move created an issue: the two universities protested, and the liberal media labeled the act as another step in Orbán’s ideological war against George Soros.
However, gender interferes in both the scientific community and society, as seen in physician Alessandro Strumia’s case. The expert was extremely vocal about the representation of women in the workshop of CERN. He claimed in a controversial speech that in physics there is no discrimination, but the requirements and expectations for women are lower. CERN in response dissociated itself from Strumia by terminating their cooperation.
The world was similarly shocked in 2005, when Larry Summers as the president of Harvard explained that women are underrepresented in top scientific positions because of biological reasons. Summers became the embodiment of machoism, had to apologize and created a fund for gender equality in Harvard. Despite all of that he still had to leave.
This is not about glorifying Orbán’s position against gender studies or a rant of a conservative against the tyranny, which demolishes traditional values. The key claims of gender studies were questioned by scientists and journalists from the liberal world.
Harald Martenstein met with criticism after his essay in Die Zeit pointed out that gender studies are rapidly gaining in popularity in German universities, while their works openly question natural sciences. His opponents were not familiar with the work of psychologist Susan Pinker, who is the author of possibly the most important book about the differences between men and women, titled Sexual paradox. She also claims the idea of equality does not work and talented women tend to choose different paths in life than men.
