EWL President: Protection of Women Is Not Radical Feminism

"Discrimination works like a poison," she says, alluding to her own experiences as a teacher in Hungary, when she was struck by the racist and sexist remarks directed to Roma or half-black students by fellow classmates.

"It was a real challenge learning how to handle it," the energetic forty-something woman admits.

In June, Reka Safrany was elected president of the European Women's Lobby, the largest umbrella organisation promoting equality and women's rights in Europe, bringing together more than 2,000 organisations.

Holding a degree in German and English, and an MA in gender studies from Central European University, she hopes that her two daughters, aged 8 and 12, will be brought up in a world where politicians and business leaders will not just pay lip service to equality, and where the advancement of women and men will depend more on talent and accomplishment than gender stereotypes.

Symbolic election

Her election as president of the European Women's Lobby, or EWL, carries a lot of symbolism. She is the first non-western leader of the pan-European organisation, hailing from Hungary, a country not particularly acclaimed for its women's rights achievements, but rather for its conservative family policies of late.

However, Safrany - who will work pro bono for the next two years as president of the EWL - believes Hungary and other post-communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have their own traditions in feminism and women's rights, which could enrich the Western approach.

"Feminists coming from the CEE region often get the impression that we are overlooked, as if we came from a laggard region, as if the emancipation of women would come exclusively from the West. Certainly, we have...