This article explores child care and preschool educational policies in Hungary from the end of World War II until the 1956 revolution, focusing mainly on the forms of organization of preschool education, methods of financing, and the quality of educational facilities. Special attention is devoted to the gender dimension of the educational system, provisions concerning women’s employment, and women’s entitlements as mothers and caregivers. The article considers preschool education as the point of collision between (forced) productive and reproductive roles of women in the socialist system. In addition to analyzing the legislation on child care, the article studies the different stages of the policy process, in an effort to identify how competing discourses on welfare policies by multiple actors and agencies—such as the state, parties, local and county administrators, various interest groups, the women’s movement, and parents—were strategically used in political narratives striving for dominance in the political field. It is also concerned with the implementation of these laws, and with their effect upon those directly affected by these policies.
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