Prague Journal

Tuesday, January 04, 2005.

Eva and I met downtown instead of at the university this afternoon, because she had set up an appointment for me with Alena Křižková, a researcher in the Gender and Sociology Department of the Academy of Sciences Institute of Sociology. This institute is in the same building as CTS, where Rick worked during most of his stay in 1997-1998. The building has been remodeled, largely due to the flooding in 2002, but also to upgrade the plumbing and electrical systems, which entailed great effort and cost to preserve the integrity of the historic building. My conversation with Alena was very fruitful, since her research on women in business with their husbands dovetails nicely with the women entrepreneurship research that I have done. We are hoping to merge our data sets and, perhaps, write a paper together. She is leaving for a 3-month scholarship study in France tomorrow, so our tentative collaboration will have to be postponed until March.
Just around the corner from the Institute is the office of Vladímira Glatzová, the lawyer who had been referred to me by Jitka Kunstova, the general manager of Reusch International. I had tried to call to set up an appointment earlier, so I thought I’d save time by stopping by her office to speak again with her secretary. Instead, Vladímira graciously met with me for over half an hour, and we set up a time to meet again later in the month. She is another impressive woman who has started her own business. Her law firm now has 26 lawyers. Of the four partners, three are women.
The weather was pleasant this afternoon – no rain – which may be the reason I saw so many people on the streets. It seemed like spring tourist season.

posted by JWinn @ 10:27 PM