| Abstract: | This article presents the personal view of the author on raising the profile of gender equality and gender transformation in development agencies. In the first section, the author describes the practical difficulties observed in the context. These include the confusion in the discourse, overemphasis on the economic aspect of women's empowerment, oversimplification of complex issues, exploration of the meaning of gender, the assumption of a distinction between male and female sexes, and the assumption of a distinction between sex and gender. The findings indicate the need to develop a social relation theory which revolves around three elements: 1) conceptualization of social relations as the mainframe of analysis; 2) the understanding of the link between experience and gender differentiation; and 3) the lack of acknowledgement of the relevance of homosexual experience. Lastly, the author emphasizes that gender must not be viewed as a politically correct ideology, but as an integral element in a wider search for a deep understanding of human behavior. |
