Ivan Chorvát

Abstract

Large cities are generally considered more liberal than small settlements regarding parental gender division of childcare. We questioned this paradigm in a post-socialist environment where working mothers of preschoolers are perceived as the norm. The study aims to examine the gender differences among parents when transporting children to preschool, car-sharing within a household, and whether they vary across municipality size categories in Slovakia. The data were collected during the nationally representative survey viaface-to-face personal enquiries in households of heterosexual cohabiting parents (n = 844). Results showed that car-sharing within households did not depend on the municipality size category; however, it depended on the number of cars in a household. In families with only one car, the car was mostly used by the father. In all municipality size categories, mothers were primarily responsible for bringing children in and picking them up from kindergarten. Yet, the proportion of responsible persons varied significantly across municipality size categories. The fathers’ involvement in accompanying children was the lowest in the smallest municipalities. On one hand, mothers in medium-sized municipalities (10,000–19,999 inhabitants) faced the least burden dueto the combination of fathers’ involvement and help from other relatives. On the other hand, help from other relatives was absent in the largest cities, where mothers accompanied their children to a similar extent as inthe smallest settlements. The progressive values of parents in the largest cities are not sufficient to relieve mothers of parental responsibilities.

Keywords: post-socialist environment, preschool, transport behaviour, parental roles, urban–rural differences

Katarína Rišová [geogriso@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Štefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia
Ivan Chorvát [ivan.chorvat@umb.sk], Faculty of Arts Matej Bel University Tajovského 40, 974 01 Banská Bystrica: Slovakia