Glass ceiling in government jobs

Glass ceiling in government jobs

Bernát Munkácsi was not appointed to a public teacher position. In 1890, he took on the post of school inspector for the Neolog Jewish community of Pest. He, nevertheless, was drawn to the academia on account of his scientific passion and achievements.  His failed application in 1892 to the comparative linguistics department of the University in Pest deeply hurt him. In 1901, his name again came up in connection with the Hungarian linguistics department of the University of Kolozsvár (Klausenburg), yet again, someone else won the appointment.

The long desired invitation finally came in 1919, during the Hungarian Soviet Republic, to give a course on “The Old Aryan and Turkish elements of the Hungarian language”. It arrived in the mail, in an envelope of the University, with the “Royal” qualifier struck out from the sender line. After the collapse of the Soviet Republic era, continuation was out of the question.