Women of the European Union challenges gender-blind assessments of the economic and social aspects of EU policies to examine the real implications of union for the diversity of women in the member states. The authors also analyse how women's work and daily lives are shaped by local and national policies, by local and global economic conditions, and by diverse and changing cultural values. Detailed contemporary case studies explore how place comes together with class, life stages, sexuality and ethnicity to affect the ways in which women are constrained, and how they develop strategies to manage their lives.