engleski

Labouring, caring, and family rearing: multiple burdens of employment and housework in Croatia

Croatian labour market is characterized with continuous low employment rates and predominantly fixed term labour contracts. The working conditions are shaped by the country’s high dependence on tourism, service sector and seasonal work, which makes labouring in Croatia rather unsecure and precarious, especially for younger and midlife workers. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that nearly 10% of Croatian working population has migrated to EU over the past few years. Those who remained are faced with not only double, but multiple burdens on their employment and housework life. To inspect the interdependence of temporary employment, unreported (under and un) employment and other forms of precarious work and non-standard working times on housework and family life, the kin work and the institutionalized and paid support that allows for social reproduction to occur in these conditions of precarity must be considered. In that context, the gendered imension of multiple work and life burdens becomes a sharp indicator of labour market conditions, as well as of persistent gender gap in paid and unpaid work, but also of overall social and economic life conditions in Croatia. This paper is based on large scale survey research from 2021 on a sample of 3600 parents of minor children. This population has been selected for research, since the scope of household work, responsibilities and family care are more extensive and demanding in families with minor children. The survey was conducted with CATI and CAWI interviewing techniques, and covered urban and rural areas, parents of different social, economic, and educational statuses, and those with various working positions. In order to give a more detailed image of relation between work and housework in Croatia, in this paper we analyze different dimensions of housework (physical work, management and organization of the household) and family care (providing emotional support to family members, conflict resolution, crisis management, maintaining contacts with kin and friends), and we also analyze who all contributes to housework and care on a paid or unpaid basis. The results of the survey that housework in families with minor children in Croatia is multidimensional and in addition to everyday physical work (e.g. cooking and cleaning) includes a number of different organizational, managerial and emotional activities. Although some households include additional assistance (paid and / or unpaid) in doing some everyday chores, the division of household chores (physical and organizational) and care still maintain existing gender-role norms especially when emotional work, planning, and family care is included in the analysis. When this is analyzed in relation to employment status and work responsibilities, it unveils complexity of life for parenting and/or working women. The responsibility to economically co-support their families, while mostly being in the grey areas of labour market that does not support women with families, domestic work becomes even more forced onto women. These multiple burdens of employment and housework are the main traits of family life in Croatia.

parenting ; employment ; family life ; housework

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