The goal of the thesis was to identify the overall life situation of men on parental leave, decisive factors that led them to take the parental leave and at the same time identification of protective and limiting factors influencing mastering the care for the child from the point of view of men on parental leave. The Introduction states reasons that led me to select the topic and describe the issue and direction of my work more closely. The Theoretical Part is comprised of six chapters describing the issue of family, fatherhood and family policy in general, the current situation of men on parental leave in the Czech Republic and in other European countries and legislative problems connected with it. The Research Part comprises eight case studies focused on the research areas set in advance. The Discussion is then comparison of specialist literature speaking on the subject and of results I collected in the Research Part. The Conclusion sums up the whole work and formulates my opinions about results of my studies. Here, I also mention my findings for potential further research. The basic methods used in my qualitative research were half-structured dialogue and open participant observation. The collected data were elaborated in eight case studies. The research sample of eight men was selected by random systematic selection. The men came from Prague and its surroundings and they were between 32 and 55 years old. The research lasted from June 2008 to April 2009. Results of my work can help to make the decision-making in family more objective in view of real benefit of one of the parents taking the parental leave. Further, the work could help overcome common taboos and find at least partial answers to questions that are new to many men.

En république tchèque, les politiques de conciliation travail/famille ont été profondément remodelées à l’occasion de la transition systémique vers l’économie de marché : l’objectif de cette thèse est de décrire les récentes évolutions de politique familiale et d’estimer leurs effets sur l’emploi des mères. Malgré l’accession du pays à l’UE en 2004 et une disponibilité croissante de données, la littérature économique sur le régime d’Etat social, les politiques sociales et familiales et leur effet sur le marché du travail reste très rare. Je montre que l’orientation des politiques familiales après 1989 a induit un fort recul de garde publique d’enfants et creusé un très fort écart d’emploi entre les femmes avec et sans enfants en âge préscolaire. J’analyse les effets de deux réformes de congé parental : la réforme de 1955 qui a prolongé le paiement de l’allocation parental à 4 ans par enfant sans prolonger la durée de la protection d’emploi (3 ans), puis la réforme de 2008 qui a au contraire encouragé un retour en emploi plus rapide qu’auparavant. J’utilise l’Enquête Emploi et j’applique la méthode des Différences-de-différences pour estimer l’impact sur l’emploi des mères à court et moyen terme. Enfin, j’examine les déterminants culturels de long terme des préférences des ménages tchèques en termes de conciliation travail/famille, et je mets en évidence une évolution des valeurs de genre vers un modèle conservateur de la division des tâches. Cette évolution, qui court sur les années 2000, s’oppose à la tendance Européenne générale et est susceptible d’influencer l’orientation des politiques familiales ainsi que leurs effets sur les ménages. / Czech work-life conciliation policies and practices have gone through dramatic changes since the 1989 transition from centrally planned to market economy. The objective of this thesis is to describe the recent evolutions of family policies, and to assess their effects on maternal employment. Surprisingly, despite the country’s EU accession in 2004 and an increasing data availability, the economic literature on the Czech welfare state regime, its social and family policy and its effects on labour market outcomes is extremely scarce. I show that post-transitional policies differed from the former interventionist and paternalist orientation, and resulted in a sharp decrease in public childcare supply and the widest parenthood-related employment gaps among OECD countries (41 pp in 2011). I focus on two reforms of the parental leave system: the 1995 Parental Benefit reform which extended the payment of universal parental benefit to 4 years instead of 3 without an equivalent extension of the job protected parental leave; then the 2008 Multi-Speed Parental Benefit reform, which encouraged yet again a faster return to employment. I use the Labour Force Survey and rely on a difference-in-differences strategy to assess the net effect of these reforms on mother’s labour market participation, in both short and medium run. Last but not least, I investigate long-run cultural determinants of the observed work-life conciliation preferences and show that a significant evolution towards conservative gender roles has been taking place in the post-transitional decades. This opposes the general European trend, and is likely to influence family policy orientations as well as the reforms’ outcomes.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur föräldrarollen och familjesituationen påverkades av utmattningssyndrom. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats med en induktiv inriktning och datainsamlingen har bestått av åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studiens empiri har analyserats med hjälp av rollteorin och valda analytiska begrepp samt med stöd av modeller och tidigare forskning. Studiens resultat visar att föräldrarnas utmattningssyndrom påverkar föräldrarollen och familjesituationen på olika sätt. De fick svårt att leva upp till förväntningar och grundläggande uppgifter inom föräldrarollen, såsom att organisera vardagslivet och att orka finnas där för barnen. Den dysfunktion som de upplevde i sin föräldraroll ledde till att de kände otillräcklighet vilket gav upphov till skuld- och skamkänslor. Empirin visar att rollerna i familjen ofta kastas om och att föräldrarna upplever någon form av rollförlust. För de som var ensamstående var det särskilt svårt då de både hade familjeansvar och var ekonomiskt begränsade på grund av sjukskrivningen. Föräldrarnas försämrade förmågor gjorde att barnen fick ta mer ansvar, vilket inte bara var negativt utan också positivt eftersom de lärde sig att ta ansvar och i större utsträckning förlita sig på hjälp från den andra föräldern. De omständigheter som bidrog till föräldrarnas utmattningssyndrom var flerdimensionella och det var svårt att skilja den ena från den andra, att det är flera olika källor till stress som orsakar utmattning. Men resultatet visar att omständigheter såsom särskilda påfrestningar, dubbla lojaliteter och höga prestationskrav i kombination med en dålig självkänsla ökade sårbarheten för att drabbas. Studiens resultat pekar även på att det görs en distinktion mellan familj och arbete trots att forskning visar att en sjukskrivning orsakad av stress rymmer många olika dimensioner. / The purpose of the study was to investigate how parenting and family situations were affected by fatigue syndrome. The study has a qualitative approach with an inductive orientation. The data collection contained eight semi-structured interviews. The empirical data has been analysed with the role theory, analytical concepts, models and with previous science. The results of the study showed that the parents' fatigue syndrome influenced the parenting and family situation in different ways. They were struggling to perform basic duties in the parenting role, such as organizing everyday life and having the energy to be with the children. The result shows that the roles in the family often reversed and the parents experienced some form of role loss. For those who were single, it was particularly difficult when they both had family responsibilities and were financially limited due the sick leave. Parents' impaired abilities made the children take more responsibility, which was not only negative but also positive because they learned to take responsibility and to rely more on the help of the other parent. The circumstances that contributed to the fatigue syndrome of the parents were multi- dimensional and it was difficult to distinguish one from the other, there are several different sources of stress. But the results show that special circumstances like specific stresses, double loyalty and high performance requirements combined with poor self-esteem, increased vulnerability to suffering. The results of the study also indicate that a distinction is made between family and work, although research shows that sick leave due to stress can accommodate many different dimensions.

v anglickém jazyce Family policy in the Czech Republic and services of childcare for children of pre-school age This master's degree thesis deals with family policy, in particular with the institutional provisions of childcare services for children of pre-school age, their legislative framework and potential future development. The goal is to find out whether the current legislation of childcare services sufficiently reflects the needs of parents, given demographic developments and the existing socio-cultural and economic context. The first chapter characterizes the current context of family policy in the Czech Republic: We are experiencing rising fertility rates, while people realize parenthood at later stages of their lives. In addition, opinion polls show that 50% of families desire an egalitarian family model with an equal distribution of childcare responsibilities between both parents, thus allowing for the professional development of each. In reality, however, women usually lower their professional ambitions and stay at home taking care of the children. The second chapter suggests that the discrepancy between the desired and the actually practiced family model is a result of existing family policies in the Czech Republic, which prefer the model of the father as the breadwinner and the mother...

This thesis deals with possibilities the employees have when they are returning to work from maternity or parental leave. The theoretical part of the thesis analyzes different flexible working arrangements in the czech labour market and current legislation for maternity and parental leave. The practical part is focused on a comparison among selected european countries in flexible working arrangements and formal childcare for children under three years of age and from three years to the minimum compulsory school age. Also discussed is the current situation in two surveyed companies. The main objective is to confirm or disprove the stated hypotheses and create suggestions which have a positive affect on an early return from maternity and parental leave for companies and government.

This thesis aims to estimate the macroeconomic impact of maternity and parental/paternal leave in the Czech Republic and Brazil. In addition, the thesis stresses out the costs of Czech model application to Brazil and vice-versa. The first chapter brings a theoretical framework. It compares the analyzed policies in both countries and introduces the relevant terms. The second chapter estimates the costs of maternity and parental/paternal leave related to public expenditure and GDP for the years 2005-2014 and brings own simulation model for Czech model application to Brazil and vice-versa. The third chapter analyses the inefficiencies and suggest possible mitigation. The results show the costs of 0.71% of GDP and 1.66% of public expenditure in the Czech Republic and 0.50% GDP and 2.27% of public expenditure in Brazil in 2014. The Czech model applied in Brazil would be very costly and the opposite scenario would lead to the decrease of macroeconomic burden in the Czech Republic. The thesis also analyzes the influence of maternal and parental leave in other areas, such as labor market, where the current structure may penalize Czech women in long term. By this analysis, the thesis contributes to the current debate about the impact, the length and costs of maternity and parental leave.

This thesis deals with the harmonization of family and professional life. Defines the Czech labor market risks for women with children. The aim of thesis is to research the current conditions affecting the status of women in the labor market and to propose measures to improve the status of women. The theoretical part will focus on the characteristics of the labor market risks. In the practical part, through an analysis of survey development opportunities for women in the labor market. The method of observation reveals shortcomings of the current family policy and the importance of the traditional concept of family. I evaluate the rationality of conduct of women and their perception of the human capital. Regression analysis finds if the level of education has an impact on women deciding when to start a family or how long to stay on maternity or parental leave. Comparison method compares labor market development in selected EU countries (Sweden, France) and the Czech Republic.

Parental leave policies have been shown to play a significant role in enhancing gender equality. The European Union has recognised this and has issued a Directive to its Member States, in order to instigate parental leave policy reform. However, not all Member States have sought to implement this. This thesis addresses this problem and seeks to answer the following research question: Why have progressive parental leave policies failed to transfer across the European Union? In doing so, this study also aims to explore the limits of Europeanisation. The research question has been addressed through a qualitative comparative case study of four European Union Member States: Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and Greece. These states have been chosen on the basis of Most Different System Design. The thesis deploys a theoretical framework based upon concepts of Europeanisation and policy mobility and draws particularly on the work of Stone’s four core concepts of policy mobility: Diffusion, Transfer, Convergence, Translation (Stone, 2012). The key factors that have been identified in this study as restricting the potential of a policy to transfer are: institutional surroundings, shared beliefs and norms, internal political dynamics and a lack of force/action from the European Union. These differences have acted to constrain the transferability of progressive parental leave policy across the European Union and therefore the process of Europeanisation in this area.

Despite the fact that the introduction of reserved parental leave has resulted in a success for gender equality in general, there are parties in the Swedish Parliament that oppose this reform, the Christian Democrats being one of them. The purpose of the study was therefore to study the effects of the Christian Democrats' problem presentation regarding reserved parental leave. The essay's three research questions came from Carol Bacchi's WPR-approach, which aimed to find the party's problem presentation regarding reserved parental leave, what presuppositions these where based on, and what discursive and subjectification effects this gives. The study shows that the problem where parents' freedom of choice and high sickness rates. Based on feminist poststructuralism, we could see that the presuppositions turned out to be about a constructed categorization where sexual characteristics are set against each other. Finally, the study shows that this had several discursive- and subjectification effects where alternative problem presentations were excluded, and that individuals are limited based on the framework that the discourse sets up, which subjectifies people based on gender.

Bachelor thesis "The Quality of Mother's life on Maternity and Parental Leave" deals with mothers and their satisfaction with this role. It deals with the definition of quality of life and its meaning. It also contains chapters on pregnancy, parenthood, the importance of families and the needs of mothers. It explains the concepts of maternity leave and parental leave. The aim of this work is to find out to what extent women are on maternity leave / parental leave happy and what factors contribute to this. For the practical part was chosen quantitative research, with the technique of questionnaire survey.