Committee: UN Women

Agenda: Addressing global gender inequalities with a focus on women’s status in the legal and
sociopolitical sphere.

Country: Czech Republic

Thank you chair for recognition,

The delegate of Czech Republic supports the idea of preventing women rights abuse.

At the beginning of the 20th century, women struggled for their political rights. T.G. Masaryk, the
first Czechoslovak president, felt there was a profound connection between building a real
democracy and supporting women´s participation in societal life. He argued that it was very
important to enforce the real equality of women not only in the new Czechoslovak legislation, but
also in daily life. As for the legislative part, one of the biggest achievements of the newly built
Czechoslovak society regarding the “women´s issue" was approval of the first Czechoslovak
Constitution in 1920, which guaranteed among other rights, equality between men and women,
including the right to vote for the first time in Czechoslovakia, a legislative document entrenched
women´s rights, starting from the right to vote, which was the most important right creating a
modern concept of democratic society.

Communist governments tried to introduce several incentives for women to enter fully into the
labour market and at the same time propaganda gradually built an image of socialist women as
women who were employed full-time, used institutional, day-long childcare services, were politically
active, and managed to run the household efficiently. As a result, the employment of Czechoslovak
women increased during the second half of the 20 century – from 37.4% in 1948, to 46% in 1984.

The communist regime enhanced women´s participation in the labour market through social and
labour measures which supported women's participation in the labour market as well as childcare.
At the beginning of the 1950s a network of nurseries and kindergartens were built and social
security for families with children was developed. By the 1970s, social security for women with small
children reached a relatively high level. Up to the age of three years of their child, women were
entitled to a maternity allowance and to a child subsidy, and their job was guaranteed during that
period.

In the period following the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing the Czech Republic was
concerned with developing policies for gender equality and empowerment of women. The
Government adopted an action plan to support the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action (1995) and mechanisms were put in place to monitor achievement of goals set
out in these documents. Although the legal system of the Czech Republic ensures equality between
men and women, it is not being fully implemented in practice. A persistent problem is the
stereotype in the attitude of the Czech society to the role of men and women (gender stereotype).
National Action Plan (hereinafter NAP) for enforcement of gender equality – “Government priorities
and procedures for the enforcement of the equality of men and women” was approved by the
government in 1998. This document contains 40 measures that are assessed and updated every year
by the government with respect to current society needs.

Since 2002 each ministry has established the gender focal point for issues of equal opportunities for
men and women. The national coordinator of gender equality policy is Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs. Government Council for Equal Opportunities for Men and Women as the Government’s
advisory body became operational in 2002. The intent of this governmental initiative was to help to
eliminate shortcomings of an institutional character for the formulation and promotion of the policy
and to create a platform for setting basic conceptual directions of this policy at the level of society as
a whole. In addition to representatives of the executive at the level of deputy ministers the members
of the Council are representatives of social partners and nongovernmental organizations.

Despite relatively good results, there is still much to be done in the Czech Republic. Affirmative
actions and bold legislation are needed to overcome inherent prejudices and outright sexism. The
high priority given to gender issues in the EU further enhances national activities in this field. At the
same time higher male mortality and morbidity rates, suggest that gender issues in Czech Republic
may not only occur women.

Thank you.