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Community property of spouses - illusion or reality? The allowance system from the female perspective

Publication

Abstract

The thesis deals with the issue of economic autonomy of women in marriage, focusing on the legal institute of spousal community property in Czechia. The thesis deals with the question of the relation between reproductive and productive work in today's society and the impact of this relation on the economic autonomy of women.

Using the feminist in-depth interviews, the phenomenon of allowance system related to the situation when women leave the labor market is examined. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to increasing the economic autonomy of women by revealing ways of creating, maintaining and rationalizing the allowance system.

The contribution of the thesis lies in the in-depth analysis of the functioning of the allowance system, which is characterized by man's control over family finances, thus deviating from the imperative of solidarity between spouses enshrined in the institute of spousal community property. The conclusion of the thesis is that considering the family as a solidarity-based institution operating on the principle of altruism disregards power relations within the family.

The consequence of this finding is the need to address the economic autonomy of women at the level of society, not family, through cultural and economic equalization of reproductive and productive work.