ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the gender differences. It discusses the extent to which women across Europe share experiences, for despite different cultures and traditions, there is evidence of a widespread commonality of disadvantage in the position of women both across Europe and beyond. The chapter reviews the role played by the European Commission in attempting to establish commonality of practice across large parts of Europe. The chapter looks at the activities of women themselves through the development of feminism. It chapter focuses on abortion and childcare as exemplars of the constraints which impinge on women's private lives, and on employment and the world of politics, as illustrations of the public arena of women's experiences. It discusses the experience of old age among European women. There is a long history to gender differences and an equally long history to women's attempts to address the differences.
