`A Bit of a Grope': Gender, Sex and Racial Boundaries in Transitional East Timor

The promotion of gender equality has, in recent decades, been a central concern in international development projects, and is enshrined in international agreements and commitments including the Millennium Development Goals. Yet the enactment of these goals in the intercultural contact zone of development has been problematic, as development workers struggle to balance sometimes-contradictory discourses of gender equality and tolerance for cultural difference. For white women working in development, this struggle can be particularly difficult. On the one hand, women may be marginalised within the patriarchal culture of international development and, at the same time, find themselves the target of local mens hostility and aggression