Mariska Gárdos (1 May 1885 – 23 January 1973) was a Hungarian
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
,
union organizer, journalist and editor. She was a founding member of the Union of Trade Employees ( hu, Kereskedelmi Alkalmazottak Szakegylete (KAS)) while still a teenager and helped to found the National Association of Woman Workers in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Munkásnők Országos Egyesülete (MME)) in 1904. After the post-
World War I socialist and Communist governments were crushed in 1920, Gárdos was forced to flee into exile before returning in 1932. She joined the
Communist Party as the
Soviets occupied Hungary in 1945 and helped to found the Democratic Alliance of Hungarian Women ( hu, Magyar Nők Demokratikus Szövetsége (MNDSz)), but resigned shortly afterwards.
Life
Mariska Gárdos was born on 1 May 1885 in the village of
Nagyberény
Nagyberény is a village in Somogy county, Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to ...
,
Hungary and moved with her family to
Budapest the following year. She moved to
Kolozsvár (now
Cluj-Napoca
; hu, kincses város)
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, native_name=
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, subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status
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,
Romania), about 1905 where she worked as a journalist for a few years before returning to Budapest around 1908 where she was employed part-time in a lawyer's office. She married the socialist journalist Ernő Brestovszky in 1909, but they divorced after the death of their infant daughter, Márta. Gárdos married György Pintér in 1913, and they had a single daughter together. After the collapse of the
Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, she fled to
Vienna,
Austria and did not return to Budapest until 1932 where she died on 23 January 1973.
Activities
Gárdos joined the
Social Democratic Party of Hungary in 1900 and helped to found the KAS shortly afterwards. She worked to found the MME in 1904 and briefly served as its president. She published her first novel, ''Justice is life'' ( hu, Az igazság az élet), in 1906.
[Zimmermann, p. 149]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardos, Mariska
1885 births
1973 deaths
Hungarian feminists
Hungarian women journalists
Hungarian Jews
Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians
Hungarian Communist Party politicians
Socialist feminists
People from Somogy County
20th-century Hungarian journalists