Kulka, Otto Dov: Landscapes of the metropolis of death: reflections on memory and imagination. 1st pub. London: Allen Lane, 2013. 126 s. and The Israeli Historian Otto Dov Kulka Tells an Auschwitz Story of a Czech Family That Never Existed.
The article deals with the phenomenon of linguistic sexism in the Czech language. The author argues for the development of non-sexist strategies in the Czech language and proposes the list of possible strategies how to reach gender neutral form of language. Her main argument is that language disposes symbolic power to define the content of gender roles and thus it can naturalize socially constructed interpretation of masculinity and femininity. Furthermore, she proposes examples and unveils the subconsciously working gender unequal practises in using language. For example, it is common in the Czech language to use generic masculine when speaking about men and women together. However, the author gives evidence that these practices support stereotypes concerning the construction of men's and women's role in society. Furthermore, it is well-established to change the form of foreign women's surname according to Czech language practise. As a result of this the surname is changed and difficultly recognizable and loses its function as a ''brand'' that consequently disadvantages women.
The anthology edited by Libora Oates-Indruchová Tvrdošíjnost myšlenky. Od feministické kriminologie k teorii genderu (Doggedness of Idea. From Feminist Criminology to Theory of Gender) – published on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Gerlinda Šmausová –, which has as its subject-matter the importance of gender for criminality, focuses on the issue of whether the criminality of women has an ontic nature or whether it is rather the result of labelling, initiated by organs of penal control. The criminality documented by police is seen more as an “artefact” of police investigation, extended into the lifeworld and very often explained by labelling approaches. The anthology points to the contradiction between sociology as an discipline that casts doubt on the naturalness and fixity of social phenomena on the one hand and the simple-minded adoption of a conception of stable homogenous gender identity corresponding to biological gender-difference on the other. For the sake of analysis and advancement of knowledge in the theory of gender, Gerlinda Šmausová aims to abandon dualism and to research into social heterogenity by exploring the theoretical approaches of Sandry Harding, Élisabeth Badinter a Judith Butler
The number of children in shared custody has been growing slowly in the CR. Today shared custody presents about 8 % of divorce cases with dependent children decided by courts. Despite this trend, there is a lack of research on how shared custody is practiced and experienced by Czech parents. The aim of this paper is to partially fill this gap. In the paper I ask how shared custody is related to the disruption of traditional gender ideology and performance of paternal and maternal roles and gender inequalities between partners. The analysis is based on 13 in-depth interviews with couples (mothers and fathers separately) who have shared custody. The analysis indicated that even if shared custody may be considered to be a tool for disrupting gender stereotypes and gender inequality between parents, it proved to be associated both with the confirmation and disruption of gender stereotypes associated with fatherhood and motherhood. While certain aspects of the practices and culture of shared custody are associated with “undoing gender”(especially regarding fatherhood), in other aspects it enhances and reproduces the gender power inequality between ex-partners and traditional expectations associated with parental roles.