Employment breaks due to childcare in the Czech Republic. Before and after 1989

The main aim of this paper is to analyze how Czech mothers perceive the consequences for their careers of interruptions in their participation in the labour market due to childcare. In particular, these women's perceptions of the impact of breaks in employment on their further career are examined in light of whether they had their children prior to or after the fall of the socialist regime The analyses are based on the European Social Survey data from 2004 and were conducted in two steps. In the first step, the paper examines patterns of labour market interruptions due to childcare in different time periods as a function of existing maternity and parental leave legislation. In the second step, the paper analyses how the regime change affected the perceptions of consequences of such career. The analyses reveal that the patterns of career interruptions due to childcare and their perception by women have changed over time depending on the institutional and legal context, and that the fall of the socialist regime had a significant impact on both behaviour and perceptions of Czech mothers.