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