Many European states, including the Czech Republic, face a high default rate on child support payments. In combination with a high divorce rate and, in some states, ineffective law enforcement, this has become a dire problem and one that has gender repercussions. In an effort to solve this situation, almost half of the EU member states have adopted a system of state advances on child maintenance. The Czech Republic is not one of them. The article discusses why all three attempts to pass such a law have failed in the Czech Republic. Is there an alternative measure fulfilling this role? Have the proposed bills been deficient in some way? Or is something else obstructing the adoption of a bill? The authors argue that, while the proposed bills could be criticised for minor technical or conceptual imperfections, the parliamentary debates on these bills indicate a more deeply rooted opposition. Manifestations of three main positions are identified: economic liberalism, social conservatism, and gender stereotypes., Barbara Havelková, Kateřina Cidlinská., 1 tabulka, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé
This review article maps a specific area of divorce research, which is important, but almost uncited in Czech sociology of the family: the connection between divorce and gender. It shows that although the concept of gender is implicitly embedded in the social phenomenon of divorce, the majority of empirical research on divorce conceptualises gender only as differences in the behaviour of men and women. This approach can be useful for explaining the gender structure of the causes and consequences of divorce. Here more attention is given to studies that explicitly mention the concept of gender at the structural, institutional, and interactional levels. It reviews the literature on gender as part of the institutional environment, and in this context it introduces the perspectives on changing gender roles as a factor influencing divorce and the literature mapping the potential of divorce to change the gender order of society. These theoretical perspectives are relatively rare in the divorce literature; therefore, it is useful to provide Czech readers with a review of some inspiring conceptualisations and put them in the context of knowledge about divorce in the Czech Republic.
Using the so-called embeddedness perspective, this article highlights the importance of context (time, space and institutions) for the direction of current research on the gender structure of entrepreneurship. The authors focus mainly on the effects of institutional context, namely tax and family policies, on business couples (copreneurs). The emphasis is on how these factors and formal institutions, which are reflected in informal gender norms, influence the work-life balance strategies of copreneurs. Based on a qualitative analysis of 24 in-depth interviews, the authors identify three strategies of achieving work-life balance and using welfare state measures: individualistic, adapting and innovating. Based on separate in-depth interviews with these business and life partners, we are also able to analyse the dynamics of communication between them. We draw attention to the finding that the strategies identified are not exclusive and may change during one’s life course and business career. Despite their differences, in some respects all these strategies preserve and reproduce gender inequality because it is embedded in the social context and institutional framework for economic activity and work-life balance in the Czech Republic., Marie Dlouhá, Nancy Jurik, Alena Křížková., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Using company-level data from the Czech Republic dating from the years 1998, 2002, and 2004, the article examines whether the introduction of legislative measures aimed at gender equality in connection with the country’s accession to the European Union had significant effects on gender wage gaps. The main conclusion of the analysis is that within-job wage discrimination is a significant factor in the Czech labour market and that there were no substantive changes during the period studied. Women doing the same job in the same company earn about 10 per cent less than men in the Czech Republic. Much of the gender wage gap can be explained by horizontal and vertical gender segregation of the labour market. The lowest gender wage gaps are found in firms and groups of employees that are representative of or have strong ties to the socialist past. The article concludes with speculations about whether motherhood and the double-burden of women, combined with the lack of respect and authority accorded the path dependent legal system, results in legislative changes having little impact on practices in Czech society and in persistence gender wage discrimination., Alena Křížková, Andrew M. Penner, Trond Petersen., 3 tabulky, and Obsahuje bibliografii
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