European attitudes and values: The perspective of gender in a transverse analysis

Although it is known that the differences within sexes are much more significant than the differences between sexes, the tendency is to overstress the later ones. In this article we analyze, in a transversal perspective centred on gender, all the answers of the ESS questionnaire, addressing some of the main issues of the survey like the exposition to media, politics, the subjective perception of wellbeing and security and human values and trying to evaluate differences and similarities between men and women. Concluding that, as expected, there is a vast domain of convergence between the sexes in attitudes and opinions, though contesting essentialist positions, it is nevertheless interesting to stress also where some of the differences are concentrated and trying to access and explain them. Among other issues the passage from a traditional gender gap to a modern gender gap is one of the topics of discussion.