Scientific Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Relationships and Family, , language: English, abstract: The transformation of gender relations since the beginning of the 20th century is one of most profound social changes in human history. The history of human civilization thus far has been characterized by male domination in gender relations. Gender inequality refers to the unequal distribution of social positions, status, economic benefits etc on the basis of biological differences and is unfavorable for females due to embedded socio-cultural values throughout the world in general and in India in particular. This gender discrimination takes many forms. Many social practices seen as normal from a religious or cultural point of view (which may have deep historical roots) leave women out of the economic mainstream. These practices may have profound socio-economic consequences because they do not allow society to take advantage of the talent inherent in women. The present study investigates that how despite the legal guarantee of the liberty and equality, especially in part III of the Indian constitution through Article 14, 15 and 16 of the very basic law of the country, the position of women is pathetic. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire from 120 female respondents from 3 villages of Mewat district, namely Hassanpur, Sheikhpur and Kalwari. The study found that violence lies in the structure of the society and has a place in the cultural practices which is well exemplified through gender imbalance, lack of access to schooling facilities, lack of personal and political freedom, no say in decision making, forced marriages, few economic opportunities, lack of securing income, pressure to cover the head and body with no personal choices.

The concept of programme evaluation, now more than half a century old, refers to the practice of professional assessment of a programme that is informed by evidence and guided by evaluative thinking to arrive at a judgement about value, merit, worth, significance and utility. Good programme evaluations in general adopt an inclusive development approach rather than a transformative approach. Feminist evaluations, by contrast, identify a wide range of stakeholders and engage the larger community in order to identify, and encourage the programme to challenge social norms that perpetuate inequalities between men and women and other genders. The essays in this volume, in different ways, suggest that gender transformative change cannot happen through the actions or exercise of agency by one group alone – whether it is girls, or boys, or women. Instead the authors draw out the importance of ‘connectedness’ between groups of people and between individual agents and the larger structures within which they are located. In doing so, they apply a feminist lens to a range of programme evaluations and policies at both the national level and at the level of specific states (Uttarakhand, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu).