Men and women in the labour market: Indecision prevails in answers about men and women in Slovakia
The published data of the Round 11 of the European Social Survey (ESS ERIC) offer, in addition to the repeated questions about measuring societal attitudes, a new module focused on gender issues in contemporary Europe. The data is freely available here: https://ess.sikt.no/
Denisa Fedáková, from the Institute of Social Sciences of the CSPS SAS, the national coordinator of the ESS ERIC project in Slovakia, describes the selected findings:
"We analysed ESS Round 11 data on the attitudes of respondents in the participating countries on three topics (items): the share of men and women in paid work, the share of men and women in senior management positions, and an equal pay for men and women. A comparison of data from Slovakia and other 12 participating countries shows the largest proportion of indecision among Slovak respondents."
The percentage of ambiguous answers in Slovakia was the highest (39.9%) in expressing attitudes towards the share of men and women in managerial positions. Respondents answered the question: How bad or good is it for companies in Slovakia if there are an equal number of women and men in senior management positions? (In Slovakia, 1297 respondents answered this item) The same number of men and women in senior management positions was rated as "bad“ or „very bad" by 14.3% of Slovaks, and as "good“ or „very good" by 45.8% of respondents (see Figure 1).
The highest level of agreement (answers „good“ or „very good“), up to 57.6%, was found by answering the question: How bad or good is it for the Slovak economy if women and men receive the same pay for the same work? (In Slovakia, 1362 respondents answered this question). 30.9% of Slovaks expressed an ambiguous attitude on this issue, and 11.5% of respondents assessed this situation as "bad“ or „very bad" (see Figure 2).
The highest level of disagreement (15%) was found in the answers to the question: How bad or good is it for family life in Slovakia if there is an equal number of women and men in paid work? (In Slovakia, 1347 respondents answered this question). 35.8% of Slovaks expressed an ambiguous opinion on this issue, and as many as 49.2% of respondents assessed this option as "good“ or „very good" (see FIgure 3). The explanation of the degree of disagreement in Slovakia on this issue can also be found in the long-term prevailing opinions on the traditional division of gender roles. Previous findings (from the Round 9 of the ESS, published in 2020 and available here: ess9-sk2020.pdf (svusav.sk)) have shown, for example, that Slovaks were less likely to approve of women's decisions to work when the children in the household are younger than 3 years old.
References:
European Social Survey European Research Infrastructure (ESS ERIC) (2024) ESS11 - integrated file, edition 1.0 [Data set]. Sikt - Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.21338/ess11e01_0.
European Social Survey https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/
ESS Slovak National Page: Slovak Republic | European Social Survey
Európska sociálna sonda (2020): ess9-sk2020.pdf (svusav.sk)
Text: Denisa Fedáková, Institute of Social Sciences of the CSPS SAS