Ivana Dobrotić

Mothers or Institutions? How Women Work and Care in Slovenia and the Czech Republic

This article considers womens and mens roles in the labour market and the different ways in which care-work is shared in Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Effective policy measures can prevent parenting of young children becoming one of the greatest risks of falling into poverty. The authors discuss to what extent the prevailing ideals of care influence the policies in relation to parenting as a source of social risks. The two post-communist countries—Slovenia and Czech Republic—show different trajectories in the development of childcare policies. The article shows that Czech social policies have reproduced the traditional ideal of full-time mother-care without preventing poverty and social exclusion of families with young children of pre-school age. In contrast to this, policies in Slovenia support female employment, with the ideal of professional childcare alongside parental care-sharing, which also helps to improve the economic situation of families with small children.

Crisis and Croatian welfare state: a new opportunity for welfare state retrenchment?

The chapter starts with a short overview of recent socio-demographic and socio-economic trends and how they challenge the Croatian welfare state, the severity of the crisis and the main crisis-related reforms. The reforms in the main social policy areas (labour market, pensions, healthcare, family policy, social assistance and eldercare) are explored in more detail afterwards, putting an additional focus on arguments behind the reforms and the way the welfare programmes were (re)balanced and (re)orientated in the crisis period.