Ageing is process that is always gendered. Gender shapes the life biography and the norms and expectations that are imposed on individuals as they age. On the other hand, the experience of ageing affects the mechanism of creating and negotiating gender identity. This article critically discusses debates surrounding gender inequalities in old age. These debates often focus on older women as a group that is highly disadvantaged owing to the combined effects of sexism and ageism. This article critically discusses this “problem of old women” and shows alternative views of women’s experiences of ageing. It highlights the necessity to understand age and gender as two intertwining systems. It points out that ageing can in many respects create room for a redefinition of gender roles and expectation. The intersection of age and gender cannot be seen as a simple combination of two categories and must instead be viewed as a process that creates a specific social location, which can generate new forms of inequalities., Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The paper discusses changes that have occurred in the Czech pension system since 1996 in terms of their gender impact. The pension system is considered in a broader socio-economic context. I take into account different working careers of men and women and their unequal share in unpaid care work. I analyse individual steps of the reform (the criteria for entitlement to a retirement pension, changes in the mechanism for calculating pension benefits, and the newly established private second pillar) and show the impact of these changes on women and men in retirement. I conclude that although the reform is presented as gender-neutral just because it maintains the same conditions for both sexes, it ultimately brings significant deterioration in women’s retirement situation as compared to men’s. An increase in the level of equivalence - and therefore the increasing dependence of the pension entitlement on previous income from paid work - means that, in the logic of the pension system, unpaid work associated particularly with childcare is valued less and less and gender inequalities in the labour market are reproduced., Radka Dudová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Assessment of people’s views with an emphasis on sociological aspects is mainly associated with the tradition of the European public opinion research. American authors introduced empirical and socio-psychological approaches to this eld of study. Hadley Cantril was one of those who pioneered “scienti c” public opinion research inspired by George Gallup. This paper reviews Cantril’s work, recalling some of his most important theoretical and methodological ndings and empirical projects, to conclude that his studies remain a rich source of knowledge for all present-day and future public opinion researchers, Ján Mišovič., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Non-random selection of reproductive partners in the human population, i.e. assortative mating, has been a stable occurrence for decades and across societies, including the Czech Republic. Social sciences have paid primary attention to homogamy, marriage between similar partners, also due to its potential impact on society. High levels of homogamy in a society may imply high closedness of the different groups, prevent social mobility, suggest racial tensions, or lead to higher inequality. Three factors are deemed as responsible for homogamy. Structural factors are represented by the partners’ physical closeness as they meet, for example, at school or other institutions. Second, there are individual factors, namely one’s personal preferences for a relationship with someone similar to one. Finally, social factors represent the influence of social groups as they have their own stake in preserving group cohesion through marriage between their members. However, evidence of assortative mating and its mechanisms mostly comes from attitudinal data or questionnaire surveys, which make it difficult to differ between individual and structural factors, among others. In this review article, I focus on the potential of data from online dating sites to help us better understand assortative mating. Is the Internet changing the ways people meet? How does assortative mating work in the online environment and what can it tell us about the mating process in general? The paper starts by presenting the main theories of assortative mating and adding information on the specifics of the online environment. There are basically two contradictory expectations of the effect of the Internet on the mating process. The first group assumes that the easy access to thousands of potential partners across all sociodemographic groups an online dating service provides, plus the absence of direct influence of intermediaries such as community members, will lead to higher diversity of the ensuing marriages. In short, the level of assortative mating will decrease. The opposite expectation is based on the assumption that people generally prefer contact with similar partners and online dating services help them more effectively filter mates by preferred criteria, thus avoiding contact with people who do not fit their expectations. As a result, assortative mating will grow. The theory section is followed by a review of contemporary international research of online dating services with regard to assortative mating. I conclude the detailed review by arguing that the human preference for similar partners occurs in the online environment as well, and therefore, assortative mating likely cannot be explained by structural factors only. Moreover, all points to the fact that data from real-life user interaction in online dating services can importantly widen our knowledge of assortative mating., Markéta Šetinová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy