Does GM really support the shift to a more gender-egalitarian Europe? What are the effects of institutional factors and policies inspired by the GM perspective on people's attitudes? How does the interaction between the contextual framework and personal values build up different gender cultures in Europe? This chapter examines such questions.

In fact, while the development of the GM strategy and its presence in laws and documentation that the European Commission has drafted is quite clear in its goals and coverage at the European institutional level (Crespi and Lomazzi, 2018), very little is known about the process and efficacy and implementation in member countries (Rubery, 2002; Greed, 2005; Moser, 2005; Martinsen, 2007).

European societies exercise varying levels of gender equality. As described in Chapter Four, by adopting a variety of indicators, Europeans across the board do not support gender equality in the same way, nor do they recognise, to the same extent, that promoting equality between men and women in Europe should be a political priority. For example, when asked by the Eurobarometer (European Commission and European Parliament, 2017) about which values the European Parliament should defend as a matter of priority, gender equality was chosen by about 30% of the entire European sample. However, only 10.4% of citizens living in Croatia, 10.7% in Latvia and 15% in Bulgaria chose that answer. Conversely, 53% of people living in Northern Ireland, 51.8% in Sweden and 49.3% in France believe gender equality should be an EU priority. These figures, as well as those from the other gender equality indices introduced in Chapter Four, clearly indicate a fragmented situation that reflects different gender cultures in each country. The establishment and development of a specific gender culture entail many factors involving societal and individual processes and their interactions. The term gender culture precisely refers to the system of values and models that people use to orient their behaviour concerning gender relations (Pfau-Effinger, 1998; Aboim, 2010). Such a system is not only about individual preferences and values transmitted through the primary socialisation process, but also concerns the role that institutions and contextual frameworks play in ongoing interactions on micro-and macrolevels. Not only inner preferences, but also cultural values and common practices in the society where individuals live shape people's behaviours (Uunk, 2015).