This paper examines the emergence and development of home economics expertise in socialist Poland and Hungary from a comparative perspective, focusing on how gendered knowledge was mobilized to address the unequal division of unpaid domestic labour. While home economics, as an academic discipline, traditionally encompasses the management of household life—including nutrition, family relations, and consumer education—within the socialist context it acquired a distinctly ideological function. It became a tool not only for rationalizing everyday life but also for promoting gender equality through the modernization of domestic labour. 

Despite differing institutional trajectories, both countries witnessed a growing interest in home economics from the 1970s onward. In Poland, the discipline was rooted in a robust interwar tradition that regained visibility after the political thaw of 1956, supported by institutional networks and scholarly engagement. In contrast, Hungary saw the belated emergence of home economics as a recognized field only in the early 1970s, likely in response to the 1968 New Economic Mechanism, which reframed household management in explicitly economic terms. Yet, despite these differences, public discourse in both countries increasingly engaged with themes central to home economics, particularly as economic pressures mounted in the late socialist period. 

Drawing on academic publications, print media, and archival materials, this paper explores how Polish and Hungarian women experts - both scholars and so-called “popular experts” - shaped the conversation around domestic labour from a gendered perspective. It argues that these women played a crucial role as disseminators of knowledge, translating expert discourse into practical strategies for everyday life. Their work made visible the tensions between socialist ideals of gender equality and the persistent reality of women’s disproportionate responsibility for domestic labour. Ultimately, this paper positions home economics as a medium of debate where unresolved matters in relation to ‘women’s questions’ were both contested and reimagined.