Gendered practices of division of family and work responsibilities between Slovak copreneurial couples
Abstract
The paper is based on the contemporary trend in entrepreneurship research, which puts an emphasis on the context. We deal primarily with the family embeddedness of entrepreneurship, which is easily studied on the case of copreneurial couples, where the link is the tightest.
The paper studies the area of division of responsibilities and roles between the two spheres and its objective is to describe the gendered nature of this division. We view the division by means of socially constructed cultural repertoires.
These are embedded in the value orientations and interpretations contained in the setting studied, Slovakia in our case. The research reveals 5 repertoires: traditional, competence-based, responsibility, collective and function-based repertoires.
It turns out that the repertoires are strongly embedded in the traditional division of roles in Slovakian society. The research unveils the nature (also gendered) of the element of romantic relationship (partnership), which is specific to copreneurial couples and may justify the gender division as well as compensate for it.