Prague Journal

Monday, February 21, 2005.

Monika was gracious enough to grant me two hours of her time over a very pleasant lunch. As a result, I think I have enough information to finish the case study about her company – and I also have a better picture of how family life in the Czech Republic is changing as people move away from their hometowns and women embark on careers. Most young children still have very close ties with their grandparents, even if they live several hours away. The school day for primary grades is shorter here, so children are usually at home with their mothers or grandmothers in the afternoons. Under communism, this wasn’t so difficult, since most factory schedules started early (some still start at 6am) and many women were finished with their at-work day by 2pm. No one took work home and few establishments operated on weekends. Most weekends were spent with relatives at the family’s country cottage. As businesses have adapted to a more western (really American) pace, work starts and ends later. As in the U.S., the work day for managers and professionals is longer; for entrepreneurs weekends are not really “free.” As children get older, however, they are more independent here than in the U.S. Many children ride public buses to school and it’s not uncommon to see kids of all ages together on the buses and in the parks on the weekends – although often they are with parents. The schools are changing here as well. School children now have more homework and more organized after-school activities. Still, Czechs are, for the most part, more family-centered than the Americans I know, and most people still leave the city on weekends to relax with their families or friends.
I had time to go to the bank and the post office before meeting Andrea and Veena at the train station at 5pm to get tickets to Berlin. Veena and I plan to stop over in Dresden on Saturday, and then rendezvous in Berlin on Sunday for the conference reception. Rick and Andrea intend to leave on Sunday and go directly to the conference, so we needed to make sure we understood where, when and how to meet.
Veena has a Czech class on Monday evenings, but we had time to go to a café for coffee and sweets and a nice chat. Veena has been talking to women involved in gender issues and gender-focused NGOs (non-profits), and it’s interesting to hear her perspective on the generational differences between the activist women of her age and those of my age. The biggest issues here are childcare and pay equity, but older women don’t seem as concerned about discrimination or harassment at work, since they have worked side by side with male colleagues throughout communism. They see promotions as being linked more to favoritism than gender. Younger women see the dearth of women in power, so they see the gender-based roadblocks in business and politics. Younger women want men who are true partners, not just (money) providers, and are more inclined to postpone (or avoid) marriage and children.

posted by JWinn @ 11:17 PM