The paper addresses the problem of growing uncertainties in the Czech labour market over the past 20 years with regard to the specific conditions of unskilled women struggling to integrate their paid work and unpaid work. The economic uncertainties and growing levels of global competition in production increase pressure for a transformation and flexibilisation of workforce. Actors occupying marginalised positions in the labour market tend to have lower levels of social capital and lower levels of work experience and education. At the same time, these people, including mothers caring for young children, find it difficult to cope with the increasing pressure for productivity and flexibility. The socioeconomic marginalisation of unskilled mothers is further strengthened by measures of the state’s social policy. The analysis at hand is based on three biographic interviews on the work trajectories of women whose highest level of education is vocational or lower. A biographic approach makes it possible to analyse the impact of structural and institutional conditions and social and cultural processes on the work and life trajectories of respondents. Their testimonies reveal the mechanisms of gender discrimination, social exclusion and subordination that unskilled mothers have to face in their personal lives and careers, and the strategies and resources they employ in order to cope with their situation., Lenka Formánková, Alena Křížková., Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé
The article aims to analyse the consequences that interrupting labour market participation for the purpose of childcare has on the careers of Czech women. The analysis is conducted in two steps. In the first step the author examines patterns of employment breaks for childcare between different groups of women, in particular between women who had their children before and those who had them after the fall of the socialist regime. In the second step, the author explores how Czech women perceive the consequences of these career breaks and what socio-economic factors affect the perceptions of women. The analyses are based on the ESS data from 2004. The outcome of the analyses suggests that women who had at least one child after 1989 are more likely to interrupt their career for longer periods of time than women who gave birth before 1989. At the same time, these women report that employment breaks had more negative consequences on their career compared to women who had children before the fall of the socialist regime., Marie Valentová., 3 tabublky, and Obsahuje bibliografii
In a European comparison, the Czech Republic is one of the countries where motherhood has the biggest negative impact on women’s employment participation. Some researchers explain this situation as resulting from Czech mothers’ preferences for a long-term interruption to their labour market participation. Others stress that preferences are structurally and culturally embedded and identify barriers to the return of Czech mothers to the labour market. In this article, the author first introduces a critique of the theories that focus on preferences in work-life balance studies. Second, inspired by the critique and based on a representative survey of the Czech adult population from 2010 focused on life course histories, the author analyses changes in the length of women’s employment interruptions caused by motherhood since the 1950s and describes the current refamilization model applied in Czech society. Subsequent analysis of biographical interviews with mothers of small children provides an insight into their decision-making about returning to the labour market, and the analysis also shows that statistical evidence of the increase in the economic inactivity of Czech mothers often relates to their involvement in unpaid or unofficially paid economic activities. These strategies are the result of their structurally and culturally constrained decision-making and limited opportunities to achieve work-life balance. At the end of the day, these factors strengthen long-term gender inequalities in the society., Hana Hašková., 3 tabulky, Poznámky na str. 39 (11), Biografická poznámka o autorce článku na str. 52, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Resumé o klíčová slova anglicky na str. 40
Secondary labour markets usually involve job positions with forced flexibility and non-standard working conditions (part-time contracts, fixed-term contracts, work without a contract). They are characterized by no advancement prospects or opportunities for further education, exhausting physical work with inadequate wages and job insecurity, and a frequently long and tiring commute. The working conditions in this sector of the labour market often contribute to marginalization and then to the social exclusion of those who happen to be caught long term in this sector of the labour market instead of preventing and saving them from the risk of marginalization and social exclusion. One of the ways in which secondarization occurs is the universal introduction of part-time contracts in a particular sector of the labour market which then becomes an involuntary trap of underemployment, underpaid wage, insecurity and discrimination. The profession of cashier in foreigner retail chains is an example of such a development. This qualitative study shows the step by step degradation of the employment conditions in this sector and how the lives of women and men working in the sector have deteriorated. At the same time, the condition and status of the profession overall are declining. This phenomenon is referred to as the "secondarization" process, Marcel Tomášek, Radka Dudová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
This article focuses on the situation of parents of children aged 0-7 in the Czech labour market according to findings from the Labour Force Survey in 2007. The author discusses the model of changes to the economic position of parents typical for the Czech Republic and shows that mainly mothers are affected by the interruption to labour market participation. They found a strong homogeneity of preferences for home care until a child reaches the age of 3, a fact that could also be influenced by structural/institutional conditions. Working mothers of smaller children are significantly at risk of unemployment and at risk of being required to work on a fixed-term contract, and they have a smaller chance of reaching management positions. Fathers are not affected as much by parenthood, but they are more at risk of having to working long hours and evenings. Some of the results (especially on mothers’ unemployment) require further research and political attention., Ondřej Hora., 2 grafy, 6 tabulky, and Obsahuje bibliografii