Meiosis consists of two divisions: meiosis I and meiosis II. During meiosis I, homologous chromosomes pair and separate. Meiosis II separates sister chromatids so that each cell has half the number of chromosomes as the original parent cell. The main differences between meiosis and mitosis are that meiosis produces gametes with half the number of chromosomes while mitosis produces somatic cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell.