Diversity characterizes fertility, family and work patterns in Europe: there are marked differences between nations in terms of childbearing, family and work preferences. In the year 2000 the British sociologist Catherine Hakim published a new theory based on preferences for paid work and family. The preference theory tries to explain and predict female preferences for work in the labour market and family. It works with elements such as values and decisions at both a micro-level and the economic and institutional macro-context, in which preferences are seen to be the main determinant of choices that people make in their lives. Lifestyle preferences are understood as causal factors, which influence the models of work and family. Preference theory works with a classification of life-style preferences for family and work: “work-oriented preferences”, “adaptive preferences” and “family-oriented preferences”. Preference theory was empirically tested on female populations in some European countries including the Czech Republic. Using a more recent survey (carried out in 2011 in the Czech Republic) on men and women, we used the preference theory in order to answer the following questions: a) What is the distribution of different life-style preferences in the Czech Republic in male and female populations? b)What are the factors impeding the realization of the preferred family model? c) What are the main determinants of these lifestyle preferences? We hypothesized that more men than women will be found to be “work-oriented” and that life-style preferences for family and work are not found to be differentiated by age or gender.