Introduction

The concept of gender has become a debatable issue in the contemporary society and an important dimension in the design and analysis of social and economic development policies. These development concerns have brought about gender issues at the forefront of national and international agenda. During the 1990's, the gender issue continued to follow the historical trend by being one of the most popular themes of debates. The Human Development Report, (1995) posits that the number of women is greater than or equal to that of men, in today's society, yet females are still considered as a minority segment of the population. As a measure to redress gender inequalities, approaches by feminist movements, such as Women in Development (WID), were crafted but not much was achieved. Later, it was Women and Development (WAD) and lastly Gender and Development (GAD). It seems deep-rooted gender inequality still exists globally, despite substantial national and international measures that have been taken towards gender equality. This essay deliberates on the assertion that, “Gender equality is debatable: what is undebatable is the attempt to make it universally applicable.” The writer agrees to a greater extent that gender equality is a controversial issue basing on the multiplicity of societies that it is applied to. The fact that there is no universal culture, universal religion or universal ideology makes the whole issue arguable, ence, the need to degenderise gender.

Definition of Key Terms

Keating, (2004:9) defines gender as, “the social meanings given to being either a man or a woman in a given society and the expectations held as to the character, attitude and likely behaviour of men and women.” "Gender refers to the cultural, socially-constructed differences between women and men and girls and boys. It refers to the way a society encourages and