Based on qualitative research of women that cared in the past or care now for their frail elderly mothers, this article aims to describe and explain some of the factors leading to the predominance of women in informal care for the elderly. The article builds on Sandra Harding’s and Joan W. Scott’s concept of gender. Their concept defines gender as a category operating at multiple interconnected levels. Based on the analysis of interviews with biographical components, we show the impact of cultural and structural factors on women’s decisions to take care, and how these factors are gender structured. Among cultural factors we focus on the process of socialization; we analyse the effect of gender norms of care and the issue of cultural taboos in intimate care. Among structural factors we focus on paid work, the gender division of labour in the family and non/availability of formal care services. On the basis of caregivers’ stories we show how these factors coherently and simultaneously strengthen the connection between women and providing hands-on care. We also identify emerging disruptions in this gender-conservative model of informal care.
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
This case study concerns the characteristics of journalistic newsroom culture of a regional news desk of Czech Television, a public-service broadcaster. It seeks to explore the attributes that each of the two news desk editors promote in relation to newsroom culture and whether they are gender specific. The article also discusses whether newsroom culture constructs the same working conditions for male and female journalists. The article draws on theories developed in media and journalism studies and especially the theories and empirical findings of feminist media scholars regarding newsroom culture and the status of male and female journalists in the workplace. It presents an analysis based on qualitative data obtained during four-week participant observation in a regional newsroom of Czech Television, combined with semi-structured individual interviews about the experiences of eight selected male and female staff members working in different positions in the editorial hierarchy. This article presents the very first findings about the gendered characteristics of newsroom culture in the Czech Republic.
The paper aims to integrate the results of several studies on the representation of masculine generics in German into a theoretical framework. Although the results are consistent in showing the male bias of masculine generics, they are based on different experimental procedures and stimulus variations, and that makes the cognitive processes involved hard to compare. Assuming that reading results in the construction of situation models and that gender ‑related memory content is activated through a fast, undirected resonance process it is possible to determine a common cognitive basis. Possible causes of gender ‑related resonance are identified and their influence on situation models is discussed. The theoretical base allows the formulation of general statements on how gender ‑related information influences language processing. Furthermore, it has practical implications for how to implement a gender ‑fair language., Lisa Irmen, Ute Linner ; přeložila Barbora Schnelle., Přeloženo z němčiny, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé