Completed project

Work – Life Balance from the Perspective of Gender Relations and Social and Employer Policies in the Czech Republic

Project duration: 
2005 - 2007

The project makes a comprehensive study of the conditions for achieving work – life balance in Czech society. It focuses on the legislative, social, political, institutional, employer and individual aspects of how individuals, couples, and families balance work and family obligations. The project consists of three phases, that combine theory and methodology in an effort to produce the following outcome: a) a legislative and socio-political analysis of work-life balance measures; b) a sociological analysis of the types of families with children for which work-life balance is of key importance; c) comparative analyses of work-life balance conditions at the employer level and a comparison of approaches and practises in Czech and foreign companies. The project contributes to creating a thorough understanding of the relations between work and family spheres from the point of view of the gender relations, in terms of both theory and methodology, and to developing recommendations that could be used in socio-political and employer policy and legislation.

Principal investigator: 
Grant agency: 
Czech science foundation (GACR)
Department: 

Project publications (total 30, displaying 1 - 10)

Hašková, Hana

Men´s and women´s magazines use biological explanations of reproductive behavior and expect men and women to become mothers and fathers once in their life. Women´s magazines stress value of motherhood because of motherhood itself (mothering as well as becoming a mother). Men´s magazines conceptualize fatherhood as a part of living in heterosexual partnership rather than (a value of) fathering.

Topic:
gender, media, parenting
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Dudová, Radka

The text is a comparative study of conditions of employees who are parents of small children, in Czech branch and in the headquarters of a French company. The company is a very demanding employer. The principal advantage offered and used in France and in the Czech Republic is the flexible working hours.

Topic:
care, work, parenting, family
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Křížková, Alena, Radka Dudová, Hana Hašková

This study analyse the strategies of the different actors involved at various levels of society: families, individuals (women and men), the companies and organisations that use the given policies, and the conditions and opportunities for combining work and family. In part this refers specifically to the individual strategies used to combine work and family commitments by women, who are still considered to be primarily responsible for running the family.

Topic:
gender, work, family, public policy
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Maříková, Hana

The paper analyses impact of parenting on the women´s and men´s lives by using data from quantitative researches as well as qualitative probes.
 

Topic:
parenting
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Paper published in conference proceedings
Křížková, Alena, Penner, Andrew M., Petersen, Trond

Using firm-level data from the Czech Republic in the years 1998, 2002, and 2004, we examine whether the introduction of legislative measures for gender equality connected with the accession to the European Union had a significant effect on gender wage inequality. The central conclusion of our analysis is that within-job wage inequality plays a significant role in the Czech labour market, and that there were no substantive changes during the period studied.

Topic:
gender, work
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Peer-reviewed journal article
Křížková, Alena, Hana Maříková, Radka Dudová, Zdenek Sloboda

The paper focuses on organisations and the conditions for working parents in terms of combining work and care and how those conditions are set up and negotiated in organisations. The research draws on three case studies comparing pairs of companies active in the Czech Republic and in one of the following countries – Germany, France, and Sweden – in the field of engineering.

Topic:
gender, care, work, social inequalities
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Article with impact factor
Křížková, Alena

The Chapter presents a theoretical introduction to the sociology of organisations through the lens of the sociology of gender, and shows how the under-developed research on gender processes at the company level is linked to the survival of organisational structures that emerged alongside modernisation and is based on a rationalised principle of patriarchy.

Topic:
gender, work, parenting
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Křížková, Alena

The chapter raises parallels between the countries in the study and the dynamics of organisational processes in those countries – CR, Germany, France and Sweden.

Topic:
care, work, parenting, family
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Bierzová, Jana

This study is the outcome of an analysis of a questionnaire survey that focused on the degree to which Czech parents develop individual and family strategies for combining work and family life, and the objective was to examine the situation and strategies of parents currently living with dependent children.

Topic:
care, parenting, family
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Chapter in monograph
Hašková, Hana (ed.), Jana Pomahačová

This study examines whether and in what way parenthood and childlessness are reflected in the gender-specific media targeting men and women in Czech society. The study presents the results of a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of selected women’s magazines and a qualitative study of selected men’s lifestyle magazines published in the Czech Republic after 1989, that is, during a period when important changes in reproductive behaviour have been under way in the population.

Topic:
gender, media, parenting
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Monograph

Pages