Práce jako řešení? Strategie obživy osamělých matek v ČR

• Authors: Dudova Radka

Title variants

EN

WORK AS A SOLUTION? LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES OF LONE MOTHERS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

When examining the gender of institutions of parenthood, lone motherhood is a key issue. In this article the authoress focuses on the economic implications of lone motherhood and on the strategies that women living with children without a partner develop in order to ensure their livelihood. The authoress begins by presenting the theoretical background and some results from European and North American research on lone motherhood. She then provides an overview of research on lone parenthood done in the Czech Republic since 1959. Finally, the authoress describes the qualitative study she conducted on divorced mothers. The results show how women deal economically with marital separation and which livelihood strategies they opt for. The research methodology was based on constructivist grounded theory and the technique of interviews. From the research results the authoress distinguishes five basic strategies that can be combined and that are based on the sources that women have at their disposal. Those strategies may differ in terms of their degree of success, dependence/independence on others, and their efficacy at different points in time. The results also indicate that the success of these working strategies depends mainly on the age of the youngest child in the family and the caring responsibilities required by that age. The authoress argues that while for some women heading one-parent families paid work is an option that allows them to obtain a certain degree of independence and self-confidence, its efficacy depends on the context and immediate conditions in which the women find themselves. Overstressing the employment of lone mothers as a universal solution may thus lead to new dependencies.

Keywords

EN

CZECH REPUBLIC; DIVORCE; GENDER; LONE MOTHERS; POVERTY; WORK

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 753-785
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Dudova Radka

• Radka Dudova, Sociologicky ustav AV CR, v.v.i., Jilska 1, Praha 1, 110 00, Czech Republic; http://dlib.lib.cas.cz/4742/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA07055