Abstract

We examine the incorporation of the gender perspective in the health field, considering scientific production, health policies and programs and everyday professional practices within the health services. These distinct layers are necessary given the different possibilities each presents for the incorporation of gender. In scientific production, we identify increasing inclusion of the gender perspective, but with little methodological use of the concept; in health policies and programs, the incorporation of the gender perspective is not comprehensive and varies temporally; and in professional practices, incorporation is anchored more in practical knowledge than in a technical and scientific basis. In the daily work of health professionals, this set of difficulties generates different tensions regarding the scientific and technological basis and the moral basis for intervention