During the last thirty years, the modernization of gender relations has been dynamic and comprehensive, shaped by the conflicting forces of globalization as well as women's movements around the world. As the patterns of segregation and discrimination of the classical industrial gender order erode, new complexities and contentions in gender relations emerge at various sites such as politics, work, and families. This book traces formal, as well as informal, gender contracts as they emerge in everyday life and also in new norms and regulations set by states and enterprises. Core issues are the chances and the barriers for equality and new forms of gender reciprocity and solidarity.