Introduction -- Part I Gender studies and indicators for measuring gender equality -- Gender equality, equity and equal opportunities: the object of measurement -- Complexity of social phenomena and the construction of indicators -- The main indicators of gender inequality -- Part II Regional analysis of gender disparities in some European Countries -- The need for sub-national level analysis to measure gender inequality: opportunities and limitations -- Sociological analysis of Regional Gender Disparities in the study regions -- Data driven policy making: indicators and benchmarking -- Gender responsive regional fiscal policies: a European perspective -- Regional Analysis of Gender Equality for policymaking in the EU and the European Actions of Cohesion Policy -- Conclusions.

Open Access

In this open access book, the editors explicitly address the issue of measuring gender equality. The book introduces readers to basic concepts of gender equality, equity and equal opportunities, then discusses measuring these phenomena, the methods of constructing indicators, and reviews the main indicators that have been proposed at the international level to measure gender equality. It then sets the theoretical discussions against the findings from a Jean Monnet project financed by the European Union to highlight the importance of a regional analysis of gender equality in four main study areas: Italy, Spain, France and Germany. The results make it clear that it is necessary to move from the purely national perspective hitherto used in gender equality analyses to a regional one because differences can be highly pronounced even within the same country. This is a self-contained volume requiring limited statistical expertise for the reader and is aimed at social researchers andpolicymakers who wish to address gender equality from a quantitative perspective.