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.
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., Marta Vohlídalová., and Obsahuje použitou literaturu
As we can support with objective evidence, the position of men and women on the Czech labour market is not equal: (i) There is an obvious gender pay gap. (ii) Women are overrepresented in lower-paid professions with lower social prestige. Many authors (e.g. Čermáková, Crompton, Bradley) concerned with explanation of the reasons of the gender inequalities on the labour market emphasize the role of structural barriers and gender stereotypes. In this paper I am trying to answer the question whether it is either the existence of structural barriers or different attitudes of men and women towards work that is the cause of the obvious gender inequality on the Czech labour market. The analysis revealed that the differences in attitudes of men and women towards work are marginal and that many gender stereotypes according to which women are less ambitious employees than men are untenable. The structural barriers and gender stereotypes are thus possible to be considered as the principal causes of the gender inequalities on the Czech labour market. The findings are based on a quantitative analysis of data collected in a study of 5 510 respondents in 2005 in the Czech Republic.
The authors analyze social changes within the family in western countries during the transformation towards modern individualized society. They based their statement on the theory of Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck Gernsheim and further on the theory of François de Singly. In accord with these theorists the authors of the article define individualization as a process continuously proceeding for many centuries. Among the consequences the authors place growing of differences between individuals, preference of individual interests to collective ones but foremost the growing possibility for free choice and decision. The authors discuss the growing of uncertainty as the negative aspect of individualism, too. The process of individualization is irreversible and because of the ambiguity between autonomy and the fact that we are living in community, voluntary love partnerships become of crucial importance as the main pattern of social relationship in contemporary societies.