Varsa, Eszter. 2021. Protected Children, Regulated Mothers: Gender and the “Gypsy Question” in Postwar Hungary, 1949-1956. Budapest: Central European University Press. 2021. 244 pp.

Abstract

Varsa’s Protected Children, Regulated Mothers is an insightful study on the social and political implications of child protection in Stalinist/communist Hungary. By focusing on the practices and policies of child protection concerning the Roma, the book provides a thorough account on anti-gypsy stereotypes, on the overrepresentation/high rate of Roma children in institutions, and on the attempted regulation of the sexuality and employment of Romani mothers. Rather than observing childcare institutions as tools for maintaining totalitarian terror, in her new study Varsa examines how these institutions mirrored and reshaped cultural attitudes toward the Roma.