The length of meiosis differs for males and females.   In females, oocyte stem cells, which are active only during embryogenesis, produce ~700,000 primary oocytes through the process of mitosis. 

These cells replicate their DNA and enter meiosis, where they arrest.

By puberty, the number of primary oocytes has dropped to about 400,000.

With each cycle, some of these primary oocytes begin to grow, but generally only one reenters active meiosis.  

This cell completes meiosis I, releases a polar body, and then arrests again at metaphase II of meiosis II – this process of resumed active meiosis takes only hours (while the primary oocyte may have remained arrested in meiosis I for many decades!) 

The meiosis II arrested oocyte (or egg) will degenerate unless it is fertilized by a sperm.   One egg is generated from each primary oocyte. 

The situation is different in the cells that produce sperm. 

Sperm-generating stem cells divide continuously by mitosis to produce cells, primary spermatocytes. 

These cells pass through meiosis I and meiosis II to produce four spermatids. 

These remain coupled together through cytoplasmic bridges, until they mature to form discrete sperm cells. 

A single primary spermatocyte produces four mature sperm cells. 

Sperm can survive for ~ 2 days within the female reproductive tract.