How Do Today‟s Czech Adults Split the Household Chores? On the Relationship between Attitudes and Behaviour1 2

Abstract

How Do Today’s Czech Adults Split the Household Chores? On the Relationship between Attitudes and Behaviour. Sociologists are often questioning the differences between gender roles/norms and actual behaviour in the adult population. The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent attitudes toward gender roles correspond with adults’ participation in various domestic chores, pointing to the differences between men and women in general and within couples in the Czech Republic. We aim to find whether attitudes indicating gender roles equality are reflected in the real behaviour. Our findings indicate certain discrepancies between attitudes and behaviour. Although the attitudes expressed by the respondents appear to lead to more gender equality, their reflection in everyday life is weak. The inclination to equality in the answers to attitudinal questions did not significantly influence the equal distribution of unpaid domestic work, nor did it influence the difference between the work done by each partner in the couple. Furthermore, the results point to the fact that discrepancies do not differentiate by attained educational level (it is an argument against the status differentiation). It requires in further research to look at the factors that allow men and women to handle the demands specific for the different stages in their life.