Maternity Leave, or Parental Time? Seven Czech Mothers on Their Experience with Working and Raising Children in Different EU Countries
Maternity Leave, or Parental Time? Seven Czech Mothers on Their Experience with Working and Raising Children in Different EU Countries

Author(s): Kateřina Jonášová, Pavla Frýdlová, Lucie Svobodová, Mirka Bendix-Beranová, Barbora Šindelářová, Viola Parente-Čapková, Zuzana Jürgensová, Zuzana Loubet del Bayle, Hana Schenk
Contributor(s): Jitka Kolářová (Editor), Jitka Kolářová (Illustrator)
Subject(s): Governance, Labor relations, Social development, Family and social welfare, Demography and human biology, Human Resources in Economy, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Gender Studies, o. p. s.
Keywords: Maternity leave; parental leave; parental time; raising children; life-work balance; alternative work arrangement; pre-school childcare; professional and personal life; parenthood; Czech Republic;
Summary/Abstract: How to harmonise family and work? How to build a career without losing the chance of a family? In the Czech Republic this dilemma is more poignant than in other EU countries. Its model, where a woman’ s right to a long maternity leave is not supplemented by her right to preschool childcare or to an alternative work arrangement, is outdated in the European context. The lack of preschool facilities prevents thousands of women from returning to work and fathers from participating more in care. Seven Czech mothers with long-term experience from other EU countries, namely Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Sweden, shared stories about their encounters with different types of preschool facilities, with returning back to work and with various patterns of maternity and parental leave, which in those countries is not considered vacation, rather a time designated to both parents. For most women in the Czech Republic becoming a mother means entering a vicious circle. The time a Czech woman spends at home with her child is the longest of all countries in Europe. And it is unique even worldwide. Statistics show that most Czech mothers of one child stay at home for three years, which has a very deep impact on both their professional and personal lives (let alone the alternative where two children in a row keep the woman at home for up to eight years). [...]

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