engleski

Transitions of Young Women from Education to Employment in Croatia: Social Reproduction at Work

Croatia is at the verge of social transformations, with a very strong re- traditionalisation in social and political domains and with economic indicators that are far from recovery. In the past two decades Croatia has undergone profound changes ; war and transition has brought altered socio-political context, changes of the social structure and unfavorable economic situation. Emerged social diversification has led to very sharp social stratification with almost vanished middle social stratum and very narrow stratum of the new elite. The consequences are unequal approach to education and unequal chances at the labour market, with prolonged situation of social instability. Additionally, in a recent period a public space has repeatedly been contaminated by attack on the civil rights, especially on the family and reproductive rights, and the rights of the women to actively express their attitudes and aspirations that are not in line with the conservative social and political agenda. In such a context, it is of the utmost importance to obtain insights into the status and aspirations of young women in Croatia and in the factors that shape their transitions from education to the labour market and from the girlhood to starting their own family. This paper aims at inter- connecting insights from the nationally representative surveys conducted in Croatia in 2012 (N=1.500) and 2018 (N=1.500) on the samples of the young people aged 15-29. The data include information on the respondents' value orientations, socio-professional status, education of their parents, family and living plans and arrangements, professional aspirations, respondents’ employment trajectories, factors of finding a job, factors of accepting a job and personal optimism in regard to their future, enabling a dynamic analysis of young women’s status, aspirations and vulnerabilities. The data analysis will include descriptive, bivariate (ANOVA) and multivariate analyses (regression) of the enabling and disabling factors of the young women’s transitions to their adulthood. There are two main hypotheses: I) young women are heterogeneous social group in terms of their social status, living arrangements, aspirations and professional trajectories. II) The major determinants shaping their social status and prospects for personal and professional accomplishment lie in their social background and value orientation. The results will show higher potential for realisation of the professional aspirations for the girls of the higher social background living in urban settings. These variables show significant correlation with the liberal value orientation, in contrast to the traditional values that on average can be found more frequently in a sample of the young girls of the lower social background living in the rural settlements, who are on average more inclined to earlier family formation. The analysis will also show that Croatian society is characterized by a relatively low degree of intergenerational mobility, with a high degree of social reproduction, which additionally blocks the girls from realisation of their aspirations. The analytical framework places the research data inside the analysis of socio-political changes and transformations that Croatian society and economy have undergone since accessing the European Union.

young women, social status, intergenerational mobility, family life, labour market, value orientations.

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