In this articles the authors analyze pension rights in the national pension schemes of the European Union countries from a gender perspective by using the mainstream regime-type framework based on the work of Esping-Andersen. An important aspect of pension benefits is the extent to which they allow individual claims for benefits or ‘family’ recipients through derived benefits or household means testing. Individual pension rights refer to a person's own insurance record or residence-based rights whereas derived rights are based on a spouse's insurance record. From the gender perspective, the authors examine how policymakers have responded in pension policies to challenges due to changes in the gender division of labor and the reshaping of the family institution.