Europe is a big place.

I think you need to modify this to "in some part of" or even in "many parts of".

Where I come from this is extremely uncommon.

Labour force participation rates by sex: USA: 70.2% for men, 57.7% for women. Europe (OECD countries): 79.7% for men, 62.6% for women. So it's more common in EU for women to work than their sisters in the US, but the gender difference in participation rates is also higher in Europe.

Sources: http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_303.htm and http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=LFS_SEXAGE_I_R