The research of maternity and career opportunities in Lithuania

Family and career are the most important values for many people. Today, when man and woman are participating in labour market, where long working hours, intensive pace, high quality and new technologies culture is dominating, families, with juvenile children, experience work and family coordination issues. In Lithuania, the biggest part of maternity holidays is taken by mother and that causes problems of career continuity or coordination between maternity and career. The object of this article is woman, who works and raises children. The aim is to reveal the opportunities of maternity and career in Lithuania. For this reason, the survey of women, who are raising children, was made. Questionnaire, which was set in internet, was answered by 250 women all around Lithuania. Sample made up to 1.3 percent of whole Lithuania women, who had maternity holidays, population. Before this survey, the hypothesis was made that women are independent group of mothers which is usually discriminated by Lithuanian companies. In this article, the analysis of scientific literature on woman discrimination in Lithuanian companies was made. This field was analysed by J. Čyžiūtė, M. A. Pavilionienė, E. Kavoliūnaitė-Ragauskienė (2010) and others, who pointed out, that usually the stereotype of mother role in family is obstacle for the woman career success and opportunities in Lithuania. After the research was found that – in Lithuania most women preferred family to work. Women, who held managing positions, were less likely to take maternity holidays, compared not to functional employees. In addition, there was found that there is no appropriate social system, which would create conditions for woman career development. There is no flexible working hour’s system in Lithuania for women, who are raising children and there is no proper relationship between employer and employee after maternity holiday. [...]Ekonomikos ir vadybos fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta