Perspectives - Gender, women and all the rest (Part I)

As a backdrop to current developments in the debate and research on gender and equality (examined in Part II), Part I of this perspective reviews some of the conceptual shifts and issues that have shaped the thinking so far. In particular, it traces the development of the concept of gender in femini st scholarship. Indeed, the equality agenda is now replete with references to "gender" and related concepts, especially since the policy shift from "w omen in development" to "gender and development". But the upshot suggests t he new catchwords have proved easier to utter than to operationalize in the pursuit of greater social justice.