These variations in gender inequality can be surprising, especially as both lay people and researchers alike often assume that their own experience, in the place in which they live or research, is normal or even universal. This is actually most unlikely to be the case and because of this comparative research (which is not only cross-national research) can be illuminating, even shocking or liberating. Social norms are not necessarily normal somewhere else, and things can happen differently. Gender is no exception. At the same time comparative research becomes pivotal in building up an explanatory account of how gender relations work, and how gender inequalities are formed and change. For now the issue becomes one of how processes can vary, what the various outcomes are and how they are differentially caused. This is the focus of this book.