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New reforms a step in the wrong direction
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January 16th, 2008 issue

Those of us who have moved here from Western countries are constantly amazed by the government’s enlightened view on social policies.

New mothers get very generous paid maternity leave — as much as three years — and numerous child-care choices. The healthcare system is much cheaper for patients than in most other developed countries. Retirees seem to do well, many living independently in their homes and receiving pensions that give them a reasonable standard of living.

So it was a bit of a shock to see how much the reforms put in place by Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek’s government at the beginning of the year chip away at such benefits. More reforms are being discussed as politicians try to figure out how best to move forward in a changing economy.

The budget-balancing measures for the next two years, estimated at 200 billion Kč ($11.3 billion), target the most vulnerable people in society — especially women, according to two nonprofit groups who have come out with analyses of the measures. Their studies suggest that seniors, disabled people and child caregivers are all likely to be hard hit by the changes.

Critics say the Civic Democrats’ new reforms are part of the party’s conservative social ideology, which keeps women poorer than their male counterparts. Government officials disagree, arguing the reforms have no more impact on women than on society as a whole.

This is a common point of disagreement in more developed countries, which are also struggling with gender disparities. On average, working women in the United States now make 88 cents for every $1 earned by male colleagues with the same experience and educational background. In the Czech Republic, women make 75 cents for every $1 the men do; if both are college-educated, that number drops to 65 cents.

In a larger context, however, these new reforms aren’t just about women. The true measure of a society is how well it takes care of its most vulnerable people, not how well it helps the rich get richer. And, from that standpoint, the reforms are a major step in the wrong direction.

There’s no question that major economic changes are in store as the Czech Republic continues its integration into the European Union, and some of them will be painful. The price of basic necessities like health care, utilities and rents will be increasingly subject to cost increases and tax hikes. We know these changes well, having seen them firsthand in the United States and other Western countries.

To borrow another page from the West, here’s a suggestion for one way to leaven the effect of such measures: Women have to get more involved politically. It won’t be easy in a country where many still feel more comfortable in traditional homemaker roles, and the few who are in public life constantly complain about sexist treatment by their male colleagues.

But those men have shown where their priorities lie. If women want to change that, ultimately they will have to do it themselves.

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