Social policy measures related to the family and high labour market participation rates of women have more than a half-century tradition in Slovenia. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the socio-economic, social policy and individual level influences seen on the production and reproduction of gender divisions in care work in the last few decades in Slovenia. It is based on the following assumptions:

• • social policy measures significantly influence women's participation in the labour market;

• • women's participation in the Slovenian labour market has changed to a limited extent the distribution of some tasks between men and women in the family, yet women still carry the main burden of family obligations;

• • value orientations and attitudes towards various spheres of activities and their meanings create expectations and a willingness concerning the gender division of labour;

• • patriarchal relations and the traditional images of motherhood prevent the changes in gender divisions of care work in the private as well as in public sphere.

It will be argued that positive effects of public policy measures are limited if they are gender biased, not accepted by all social partners and supported by changes in socialisation process, positive learning experiences and raising awareness through the media. To overcome the gender-biased impacts the possibilities for re-conceptualisation of caring and of parenting/family employment relationship are to be explored.

Social and economic determinants of position of women

Until 1945, the exclusion of women from politics and inequalities in paid work were legally protected and supported by the single breadwinner ideology, propagated particularly by the Catholic Church (Jogan, 1995, p 229). The Catholic Church determined the prevalent basic value orientations of people in Slovenia. The androcentric advocating of gender hierarchy in all spheres of life underlined the ‘natural’ role of women as mother and housewife with specific personality characteristics such as to be obedient, passionate, modest, suffering, caring and helpful.

After the Second World War, Slovenia became one of the six republics in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. The ideology of the ruling Communist Party was aimed at eliminating private property, social inequality and the transfer of some traditional family functions to the public/state institutions.