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2007:3 The Relationship between Changes in the Labour Market and Private, Family and Partnership Life

Radka Dudová (ed.), Šárka Hastrmanová, Hana Hašková, Hana Maříková, Hana Víznerová, Marta Vohlídalová

In the past seventeen years Czech society has been affected by an array of political, economic, social, and cultural changes, which have continuously introduced major changes into the way of life in society. On the one hand, there has been a profound transformation of the labour market: pressure to spend more time at work combined with full-day absence from the household have increased the stressfulness and physical demands of some types of work, negative job flexibility forces some employees to conform almost ‘ad hoc’ to the demands of the job and their employers, and job insecurity has increased. Many of these changes have made themselves evident also in changes in private and family life. The most visible effects of these changes are seen in women’s participation in the labour market, the waning importance of the institution of marriage, the spread of unmarried cohabitation, the rising divorce rate and increasing proportion of single-parent families, the postponement of childbirth to a later age, and the increasing number of people who live without a partner. This volume looks at the risks affecting the private life of individuals, risks that have been ushered in by changes in the labour market, and it examines whether the shape of the family is changing in the Czech Republic and what groups are most affected by and who most at risk from these changes. The authors also examine the ways in which work life and the private or intimate sphere interact and how individuals cope with the effects of one sphere on the other. Czech society still exhibits the features of being in transition from an early modern to a late modern society - while some characteristics of late modernity are abundantly present (a high divorce rate, deferred childbearing, and increased childlessness), others are only traceable among small groups of the population (the two-parent nuclear family is still regarded by the majority of the population as the ideal, and men’s careers and professional fulfilment take clear precedence over women’s careers). In sum, it cannot be said that the impact of the transformation has put the integration of Czech society at risk or that people want to live alone and without personal relationships. However, relationships will probably no longer take the form of the traditional family, where children are born into a marriage and where marriages last the lifetime of the parents.

Keywords

Work, labour market, transformation, family, partnership life, private life, parenthood, individualisation, marriage

Summary

The Relationship between Changes in the Labour Market and Private, Family and Partnership Life’ is the title of this sociological study of the changes currently occurring in the Czech labour market and private life in Czech society. The authors analyse the interconnections and reciprocal impact of the work sphere and the private sphere. The publication is the outcome of a project of the same name and is based on the results of a quantitative survey focusing on the relationships between changes in the labour market and changes in the private lives of the Czech population. The survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2005 by the Institute of Sociology AS CR on a sample of 5510 respondents aged 25-54. This project is funded for 2005 to 2008 under the Modern Society and Its Changes module (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) of the National Research Programme.

In the past seventeen years Czech society has been affected by an array of political, economic, social, and cultural changes, which have continuously introduced major changes to ways of life in society. One of the areas affected most powerfully by these changes is the institution of the family. The most visible effects of these changes are seen in women’s participation in the labour market, the waning importance of the institution of marriage, the spread of unmarried cohabitation, the rising divorce rate and increasing proportion of single-parent families, the postponement of childbirth to a later age, and the increasing number of people who live without a partner. Private life is also significantly affected by external circumstances, particularly the conditions in the sphere of work and the labour market. The new labour market conditions, the higher demands on the intensity and flexibility of work, and the reduced ‘security’ provided by the state potentially represent a threat to the bases of the integration of society and social cohesion.

The first chapter in this volume, by Radka Dudová and Marta Vohlídalová, introduces readers to the theoretical background of the analysis and the existing empirical research and knowledge in this field. Of particular relevance are contemporary sociological theories of the individualisation of society, which claim that modern society is becoming much more individualised than it was in the past. This has also transformed the nature of partnerships, family arrangements, child-rearing, and parenthood. The chapter also looks at theories dealing with the changes in the labour market and the effects they have on men and women, and generally examines the issue of establishing a work-life balance.

In the second chapter, Marta Vohlídalová and Hana Víznerová describe the features of the Czech labour market today. Although full-time employment with fixed and inflexible working hours is still the prevailing employment model, a growing part of the population is beginning to encounter new forms of working arrangements and risks in the labour market. These include the increasing amount of stress and physical demands put on employees in certain types of jobs owing to the pressure on people to spend more time at work combined with long absences from the home, negative job flexibility, which forces employees to adapt ‘ad hoc’ to the demands of the job and employers, and finally the increasing amount of job insecurity (fixed-term contracts, temporary jobs, entrepreneurial risk). These new risks affect various groups of the population to varying degrees, but those most strongly affected are, on the one hand, employees in the lowest ranking jobs and with the lowest education levels, and on the other hand, people with university education in managerial and supervisory positions and business posts (though each of these groups in a different way).

The third chapter, by Radka Dudová, looks at private-life arrangements in the Czech Republic and the Czech population’s attitudes towards them. The prevailing preference among the Czech public is for heterosexual families with two biological parents. Young people for the most part plan to marry and want to have children, especially young women, who are often accused of ‘selfish’ behaviour in this regard. While some deviate from this standard, this is not directly because of the changes in the labour market.

Marta Vohlídalová writes in the fourth chapter about how professional and private life interact and are reconciled by individuals, and points out that the way careers and professional lives are arranged within a couple still tend to disadvantage women’s professional lives compared to men’s. It is mainly women who cut back and accommodate their professional lives to the needs of their partner or the needs of their family. Hindrances on the professional aspirations of women are also evident in the fact that Czech society is still quite ‘traditional’ even with regard to the division (or rather the lack thereof) of housework between partners.

In the fifth chapter Hana Hašková discusses issues connected with Czech men’s and women’s reproductive plans and focuses on the factors that affect those plans. The research revealed a persistent pro-family orientation among Czech men and women. Not only do the majority of them plan to become parents in life, but the majority of them also regard anything other than health (and perhaps also economic) reasons for choosing to remain permanently childless as unacceptable. Nevertheless, it is possible to expect in the future that there will be a significant increase in lifetime childlessness and especially in the number of single-child families. This applies especially to women with higher education, who see (expect) a conflict between paid work and unpaid care for children more than women with lower levels of education.

In the sixth chapter, Hana Maříková analyses the existence of private and intimate relationships at the workplace. She shows that the sphere of work has not yet become as significant and important in people’s lives as the family, judging from their declared ‘need’ to escape from one sphere to the other in the case of problems, or their expressed dissatisfaction with how one of them is functioning. While work is important in people’s lives and is an important dimension of personal identity, for most people it is no substitute for family and the close social relationships and ties they form outside the formal space of work, and in this regard the family remains an important sphere of intimacy, sharing, and trust between people.

This study primarily informs readers about the theoretical foundation of the project and its basic empirical findings derived from a large quantitative survey of the connections between work and family life. As such it offers a source of information and data that can be applied to other subjects and institutions. Qualitative research will be carried out on the findings and analyses presented in this study and will take a deeper look at identified problems, and the findings from that research will subsequently be published.