This introduction identifies the main features of change (new patterns of gender equality) and continuity (legacies of traditional gender orders) in the labour market, the family, the welfare state and in political participation. The authors reject foreign models of gender equality to assess the notion of change. Instead, they use a normative ideal-type, the Universal Care-giver Model, to which gender inequalities in different areas of southern European societies are compared. They conclude that the main requirements for approaching the Universal Care-giver Model are twofold: first, women have to renegotiate gender contracts within the family according to a more egalitarian gender division of labour; and, second, they have to push for the implementation of family-friendly policies (such as an employee- and family-oriented flexibility of working time).