Ever found yourself racing to the school gate at the last second just to scoop up your child? That rush isn’t a personal quirk— it’s the by‑product of a system where relentless work culture and patriarchy collide. Couples argue about whose job matters more, who stays home with a sick kid, and too often, women end up stepping back. The solution is simple: work less and build stronger communities. As Czech sociologist and stand-up comedian Lucie Jarkovská—author of Become a Feminist Quickly and Easily—argues, rethinking work is the first step toward real equality.
How do you share childcare with your husband?
Honestly, we’re just trying to survive. When our children were younger it was hell. During COVID it was especially chaotic because I had to teach the older child, entertain the preschooler, do my own work, cook, and clean. Eventually I couldn’t manage it all and told my husband that we needed to take turns.
What did he say?
He said we would be financially worse off because if he stayed home with the kids during the lockdown he would have to take family sick leave, but I told him it didn’t matter—we’re not living hand to mouth and our budget can handle it. So we started alternating weeks.
How is it now?
Now that the kids are older, they’re more independent and fearless. They can stay at home on their own when they are sick, make a meal, or go out to eat. That’s a huge relief; it’s fantastic compared with the burden of having small children during the pandemic.
I feel like juggling family and work is an endless fight.
I liked how Ulrich Beck described it. In capitalism we, as a society, have freed ourselves from feudal bonds, but women have remained in a feudal relationship because they are still expected to take care of children. Capitalism expects women to be part of the labor market. So you have to combine both roles, but our institutions aren’t set up for that.
What do you mean?
One example sums it up: you have a workday that ends at 5 p.m., but kindergarten closes at 4:30 p.m. Families constantly face the unsolvable dilemma of who will pick up the children and who will look after them when they’re sick. Partners argue with each other and see it as a personal conflict, while it’s actually an inevitable clash stemming from the structural setup. When women give in, the conflict diminishes. But when women claim their own rights, it triggers an endless, unresolved conflict.
And women hear, ‘You’re being difficult. Why don’t you stay home with the children?’
How do you decide whose work is more important? Whose claims are more legitimate? It’s hard. In some families the criterion is income, in others the flexibility of the job. But more often than not the person with a flexible job usually ends up working nights at the expense of sleep, and the family’s needs are met only at their cost.
How can we address this couple‑level conflict systemically?
I think, in general, we need to work less. When work expands into every aspect of life, it can’t be combined with caring for children. We need to rethink the capitalist mindset that forces us to pour everything into work and keep climbing the ladder.
Today people talk about quiet quitting—doing only the essential duties at work and not sacrificing all your free time to work. We should demand that weekends stay weekends. Sending a work email at the weekend should be seen as impolite.
I’ve always loved the idea of working less and living more. But whenever I propose reducing the work week to people they say that it’s not possible or it’s a privilege to be able to work less. What is your take on this?
I’ll start a bit indirectly. Technological progress is often justified by the claim that it saves labor. If people send emails instead of letters — it saves work. If they use AI to write those emails instead of thinking them up themselves — it saves work. But in reality, this kind of progress doesn’t bring less work; it just makes the work go faster. So instead of handling one matter a day, you’re expected to handle five — and with AI, maybe fifty. If we don’t stop to reflect and just accept this pace, we’re like hamsters running in a wheel. Instead of enjoying the simplification of work, we just expose ourselves to greater speed and stress.
That’s so true! I had never really thought about that.
The question of social class and background is, of course, also important. In some ways, the middle class is certainly privileged, but when it comes to the approach to work, it might actually have something to learn from the working class, which is often much better at separating work from personal life.
How exactly?
When you work as a laborer, if the production line stops, you go home and stop thinking about work. You can go and do your own things with a clear head, without constantly checking your phone for another request from your boss or teammates. Of course, this requires that your work provides a decent wage and that you don’t have to rush from one shift to the next. The middle class sometimes wears its overload as a badge of honor. But if anything is to change in this regard, we need to start seeing overwork for what it truly is: a pathological condition.
What would have to change in the society so we could all work less?
We need a revolution not in technology, but in our approach to work. We have to convince ourselves that work isn’t everything — and that it’s not only acceptable but desirable to work fewer hours.
What is the one easy thing can women do today to reclaim more free time?
As women, we need to embrace the idea that we are not more responsible for caring for the family, children, and household than our partners are.
What else would help families with young children to relieve the stress?
Mutual neighborhood and community assistance can lift seemingly unsolvable individual problems onto a communal level. A network is stronger than a single thread. When I was a sick child, our neighbor looked after me, which greatly helped my parents. I know people who tutor neighboring children for free or help them prepare for entrance exams.
That is a great idea! But in my personal experience it’s really hard to find people who have time. Everyone complains how busy they are, whether they are teenagers, working people or retired grandmas. Is there a way out?
Exactly. When we’re always working, there’s no time for community. We need to work less. In this, we can also learn from the working class, where there seems to be much more mutual support, sometimes it’s simply a matter of survival. When a working single mother has to work a night shift, she may have no choice but to ask a neighbor or a colleague, who isn’t on night duty, if her children can stay over. And later, she returns the favor when the other person needs it. The middle class, by contrast, tends to be stuck in a vicious cycle of finding suitable babysitters and earning enough money to pay them.
Don’t tell me about it. 😊
Personally, I really liked the time when my children started kindergarten. Three- and four-year-olds create such a nice daily rhythm. In the morning they go to kindergarten, which closes around four o’clock. Once you pick up your little child, there are still a few hours of free time before bedtime, but you cannot work or rush anywhere because the kid slows you down. So when my children were that age, we would go from kindergarten to the playground, where most families from the neighborhood were in a similar situation. We didn’t have to arrange anything — we would just meet regularly at Obilní trh, where there’s a park, a playground, a coffee stand, a pastry shop, and a pub, so you could bring a drink or snack with you. But it only lasted a relatively short time; once the children got older, the stressing cycle of taking them to various afterschool activities and sports club began.
Do you have any ideas how to build your own strong community or network if you for example live in a big city and are new in some place?
I recommend thinking about what you enjoy and what kind of environment feels good to you. In some places, church communities work really well. If that’s not your thing, think about what you like to do and what you’d like to do with other people. Is it singing, dancing, going on hikes? There are social platforms that help create groups based on shared interests and goals and organize meet-ups.
Another option is supporting neighborhood activities. Do you live in an apartment building? How about organizing a communal barbecue, singing carols in the hallway at Christmas, or a cleanup day around the building? People get to know each other, start conversations, and you might even find someone to feed your cat when you go on vacation, or someone to share your interest in watching sports — for example, watching the World Cup together.
Speaking of community, would you appreciate feminist meetings?
Yes, definitely. I sense the need for a community—a place to sit with people and talk face‑to‑face, not just online. Community is more than a circle of friends you might meet for coffee or a movie. A community exists even if you don’t arrange anything yourself. It’s simply there; you either join or you don’t. It gives you the chance to meet people who aren’t as close as your friends, providing new perspectives and unexpected forms of support and reciprocity.
In 2024, you started organizing women’s gatherings called “Přástky” in Brno. What led to that?
We were outraged by the results of the 2024 regional elections — there were 12 men and not a single woman in the South Moravian Council. As an informal association of South Moravian women we spoke up and demonstrated during the first session of the regional council to make clear that women cannot be ignored.
In May 2025, we organized another protest called “Women on the Electoral Lists—Can We See Them?” We collected 2,000 signatures and sent an open letter to political parties, in which we asked how many women they have on their electoral lists and what they do to support women in public life.
Have you always been interested in politics?
Politics used to bore me, but over time I’ve realized that it simply can’t work without women. Men don’t address many issues. And if we leave it like this, our activism will go nowhere and nothing will change. Laws and societal structures need to be set, and that requires women’s access to decision‑making positions.
Did it make you angry that there were so few women in the Council?
Earlier I would definitely feel angry and think, “How can they do this to us women?” Now I tell myself, “These councilors are running their own business, trying to place people from their own circles, and I understand that, but I want to say that this is wrong and I won’t stay silent.”
That’s a good approach.
The older I get, the more I realize there’s no point wasting energy on anger. Young people have visions of how things should be and get frustrated that reality falls short. I feel a certain skepticism about the prospects for positive change, but I’m also grateful for what we have.
Do you see any positive shifts in the Czech society with regards to feminism?
If you look in a certain geographical direction, we’re doing poorly; if you look another way, we’re doing great. Overall, I feel that support for feminist topics is growing. We published the book Feministkou snadno a rychle (“Become a Feminist Quickly and Easily”) with an initial print run of 2,000 copies, and we soon had to do a second printing. So far 4,000 copies have been sold, which is good for the Czech Republic, especially since at the same time two similarly themed books were released and also sold well. Around the same time, magazine called Heroine emerged, which regularly covers feminist topics and brings them into the mainstream. Feminism and emancipation are no longer fringe topics.
What is on the contrary missing in Czechia?
Support for civil society could be stronger. I still get the impression that there is a tendency to idealize traditional gender roles. I remember my mother telling me in 1989 that everything would be fine again because a man would earn enough to feed the whole family and a woman wouldn’t have to work. Yet she herself is an excellent doctor, and I can’t imagine her as a housewife even if her husband earned millions.
Why would she say something like this?
My mother would never want me to be a housewife, nor would she ever say that my children suffer because I work, but in some abstract universe she still sees a woman staying at home as ideal. It’s normal that we have certain cliché ideas, while in reality we live differently and don’t even try to fulfill those clichés.
Do you also believe in any clichés?
I personally find it beautiful to have many children, yet I can barely manage two. That doesn’t stop me from sometimes imagining a large, wonderful family with beautiful relationships where everything works. Dreamy fantasies and reality are two distinct things, and it’s important that we don’t turn unattainable fantasies into a norm or a whip for everyone whose reality looks different.
Check out my interview with sociologist Iva Šmídová about Why Men Should Join the Feminist Fight.