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Diverging Paths among Central Eastern European Mothers? The Degree of Incongruity between Employment Preferences and Their Actual Experiences (1994-2012)
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Abstract This paper examines the congruity between mothers' preferences and actual experiences when raising preschool children, using data on mothers of reproductive ages (18-49) from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (1994, 2002, and 2012). The fin... view more
This paper examines the congruity between mothers' preferences and actual experiences when raising preschool children, using data on mothers of reproductive ages (18-49) from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (1994, 2002, and 2012). The findings show that (i) with one exception, in all the countries and years, mothers whose preferences were congruent with their actual employment statuses outnumbered those whose preferences and employment statuses were incongruent; (ii) whereas Czech mothers improved their situations during the period (the congruity increases), Polish mothers - who began the period with the highest congruity - experienced a decrease in congruity, while Hungarian mothers showed the lowest congruity and saw a slight improvement in their situations (they achieved more congruity); and (iii) women who had their children during the communist regimes were more likely to experience incongruity because they worked more than they desired to, while women who became mothers during the post-communist period were more likely to experience congruity when they stayed at home, but they were also more likely to experience incongruity because they were inactive and considered working desirable. Therefore, the results confirm similar trends and diverging paths among the three countries. The high degree of incongruity between preferences and actual experiences is a sign of the problems faced by mothers attempting to reconcile work and family life and also impacts other phenomena, such as female employment, gender equality and fertility.... view less
Keywords
ISSP; work-family balance; gender role; fertility; East Central Europe; mother; women's employment; preschool age; Czech Republic; Hungary; Poland; working woman
Classification
Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies
Family Sociology, Sociology of Sexual Behavior
Labor Market Research
Free Keywords
refamilialisation; ISSP 1994; ISSP 2002; ISSP 2012
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 707-736
Journal
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 57 (2021) 6
DOI
https://doi.org/10.13060/csr.2021.043
ISSN
2336-128X
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed