The Gender & Sociology department was established in 1990 on the basis of a research proposal to study the position of women in Czech society, and with the support of a grant received one year later the research team was formed and the foundations were laid for developing the field of gender and sociology in the Czech Republic, where prior to that it had not existed. The department theoretically and empirically advances a concept of gender-oriented sociology extending to feminist sociology. Over the course of the 1990s the research team gradually expanded and today is one of the key scientific institutions in the Czech Republic that focuses on the position of men and women in society.
The department’s main research topics currently include women in the labour market, women and science, gender roles in the family, the transformation of life in the family and partnership and reproductive behaviour, work-life balance, the man in the family, equal opportunities of men and women, gender relations in organisations and business, motherhood and obstetrics, violence against women, the development of civil society from a gender perspective, and women’s participation in politics.
The department combines the results of its own quantitative and qualitative research studies with theoretical research on particular issues and thus contributes to furthering the analysis of various specific gender issues. Other activities include teaching gender sociology at the university and giving lectures. The department also makes a significant contribution to the development of multidisciplinary field of science – the gender studies, building of feminist sociological methodology and implementation of equal opportunities of men and women in the Czech Republic.
The National Contact Centre – Women in Science was established within the framework of the department in 2001 under the OK 437 project funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The Centre focuses on the issues of the position of women and young people in science and on research of gender aspects of knowledge production. It also develops activities to promote gender equality in science by means of seminars, workshops, lectures and publications.
