European Gender Roles: Public Discourses and Regional Practices.

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the relation between values and practices in European gender roles through a differentiation between public debates and local practices. Values in public debates can be seen as self-representations of leading principles of a society. On the one hand, shared values are produced and reproduced in public debates. On the other hand, individuals interpret and reproduce values in social contexts and institutions. The practices of individuals, however, are highly influenced by specific conditions, for example regional opportunity structures and regional milieus. Shared values (leading principles of a society) and (local) practices can therefore differ. Data from the Eurobarometer Studies, and from the European Values Study, are used to explicate these ideas, while information from Germany is used to show the importance of the regional level to the ways in which values and practices interrelate. The article argues that these cultural differences imply universal principles for gender equality, but at the same time the regional development of specific measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]