Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2016, 52(4): 557-580 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2016.52.4.272

Gender Aspects of Divorce: How the Study of Divorce Can Contribute to Theoretical Approaches to the Sociology of the Family

Petr Fučík

Fakulta sociálních studií, Masarykova univerzita, Brno

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.

Keywords: divorce, gender, divorce consequences, gender roles, sociology of the family

Published: August 1, 2016Show citation