Formation and change of the gendered economic and power inequalities - the case of division of labour in Polish households

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During my research I intend to explore the division of labour among Polish dual-earner couples, having children. The extensive review of existing literature of the field clearly shows that gender inequalities are produced and reproduced both on the labour market (e.g. gender pay gap) and in the households (e.g. women doing most housework and childcare). This is why in the project I plan to reconnect the spheres of family and work, which are often investigated separately. I will focus primarily on dual-earner heterosexual couples as among them the traditional gender roles are most contested and work-family conflict is significant. According to international research, based mostly on data from the USA, Australia and the Western European countries, the birth of the child is the life-changing event which strongly influences the division of labour in family (towards more traditional arrangement). Poland, as a post-soviet country, has undergone a significant economic and social change since 1989 and joined the European Union in 2004. However, women in Poland (if employed) still work almost exclusively fulltime and at the same time public support for children (i.e. availability of childcare centres) dropped when the welfare state retrenched. This situation is characteristic for the CEE cluster, therefore more in-depth comprehension of formation (and reformation)of the division of labour among Polish couples in Poland may contribute significantly to the existing international body of knowledge around gender inequalities in the spheres of the family and work.