Czech family: few children, many divorces

The great change of Czech society which came with the fall of the communist regime has also had a great impact on individual and family life. Fifteen years after the Velvet Revolution the Czech family is facing several problems, such as a low birth rate and a high number of divorces. What are the causes? What is the government's position?

The life of Czech families has changed enormously within the last fifteen years. People tend to get married much later, they have children at a later age and they have fewer children. The Czech Republic has the second lowest natality rate in Europe after Ukraine. This is confirmed by Dana Hamplova from the Czech Sociological Institute.

"Yes, it is true. But we should bear in mind that it started to decline in the 1980's, not in the 1990's as it is sometimes believed. It's a really difficult question and many demographers and sociologists view it from a different point. One point is that people are postponing childbearing - they usually have now just one child, not two children. The reason could be that more women are working full time. There are less part time jobs. This makes it difficult to combine the family and work."

Another problem in terms of family life is that many marriages fail.

"We have relatively high divorce rate. If we look at Europe, the Czech Republic is very close to Scandinavian countries that have the highest divorce rate in the world. At the moment fifty percent of marriages end in divorce."

Lenka Novotna has been happily married for three years. With two little children she is not a typical example of the current Czech woman.

"I think the greatest problem is that your life changes so much. Especially if you are a woman, because everything changes when you become a mother. Especially in our society where everyone wants to be free and independent, you come to a moment when you are called upon and 'enslaved' because your children need you. And they need you all the time."

Michaela Marksova-Tominova from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, says that the government has a project how to improve the situation of Czech families.

"The family policy plan will cover many different things. Firstly, it will support families financially - for example to increase parental benefit - secondly it will motivate municipalities to offer better facilities for young families with children. The other thing is that the state can support family friendly policy in companies, plus equal opportunities policy."

And the family friendly policy should not be only supported through these administrative measures. In the long term, the government hopes it will manage to help create a better atmosphere in the society, so that the family life becomes more attractive than it has been till now.