Relations, Attitudes

More than a quarter of respondents think that artificial insemination should be available only to married women. One fifth of respondents thought that also unmarried women living with common-law husbands should be entitled to this treatment. The largest group (40 %) was formed by respondents of the opinion that artificial insemination should be available to all women regardless of their marital status or if they live with a partner or not.

Respondents’ opinions showed their prevailing conviction that “human relations in the Czech Republic are more bad than good”, compared with 41 % of respondents, who said that relations between people here are “definitely good” or “more good than bad”. The negative opinion was voiced by a total of 54 %, who described it as “more bad than good” or “definitely bad”.

The most significant change since 1992 occurred in the area of relation between parents and children - in 1992 there were only two percentage points more of those saying that these relations had got worse than those thinking they had become better.

The results of the Public Opinion Research Centre survey shows that 70 % of single women and 69 % of single men would like to get married in the future. 12 % of single women and 6 % of single men decided not to conclude a marriage in their future life. The most frequently named reasons for getting married were “children” (66 %) and the opinion that "two is better than one” (34 %), a quarter of respondents consider taking marriage vows to be “obvious and normal”.

In December 2003 Public Opinion Research Centre also included in its survey two open questions, where respondents named what they disliked most about human character and behaviour of people. The results of the survey show that as to the human character respondents dislike pretentiousness, lying and jealousy most, and with respect to the behaviour of people the first spots were occupied by pretentiousness, lying and aggressiveness.

The survey results confirmed that the upbringing of children was concentrated in the hands of women. About four fifths of respondents with children say for example that mother takes the child to the doctor’s or used to go to the doctor’s in case of the grown up child, as well as stays or used to stay with the child at home during illness. Mainly mothers read stories to their children and learn with them.

The research showed that the attitude of the Czech public towards employing foreigners is not clear cut in this country: 45 % of respondents think it is correct, a similar number - 44 % have an opposite opinion. Most respondents believe that a cheap foreign labour force represents a threat to employing Czech citizens (82 %) and that the employing of foreigners in areas with high unemployment should be cut down (81 %).

Almost three quarters of respondents agree on the fact that foreigners should have the possibility of gaining long-term residence in the Czech Republic, but only under certain conditions. The opinion that foreigners should not be given the possibility to stay here on a long-term basis was expressed by 17 % of respondents and on the other hand residence without restrictions would be enabled by 6 % of respondents.

The absolute majority of citizens feel proud of the Czech Republic in connection with sport (91 %), culture (89 %), history (88 %) and a little less with science and technology (77 %). Other reasons as a source for feeling national esteem are seen only by a minority of the population: in case of armed forces it is 41 %, functioning of democracy or relation to foreigners 38 %, in case of political influence in the world 32 %, in relation to social welfare 25 % and in case of economic results it is a mere 11 %.

For many activities connected with caring for children the most frequent situation is that both parents jointly share these or take turns depending on who has time at that point, and generally it applies that the proportion of both parents’ taking a share in individual activities connected with caring for children is higher in families of the current generation than it used to be in families of the previous generation.

According to the answers provided, Czechs most often look after the household together, as stated by three fifths of men and almost a half of women. Only a small proportion of men said that most care for the household was placed on them. A quarter of men admitted that their partners do the most in looking after the household, however a third of women believe that they themselves do the most in looking after the household.