Susan Welsh (asker) Dec 13, 2009:

@Tom Good point. I am not in touch with the author, but will leave a query in the translation for the agency, and maybe they can find out. The PM is very cooperative and wants to get this done well.

Tom Feise Dec 12, 2009:

strukturell to be quite honest, strukturell is such a simple word, but with so many meanings and subtleties, I would, as a man, and did after following the discussion, have difficulties in fully grasping what a feminist would have wanted to express. I had a few cases like this before, and it always helped a lot by actually asking the author of what precisely they meant. This asking the originator of the source was actually appreciated, because it showed the client or author that translation is not just plopping words from a dictionary together.
And apart from that, I learnt so much about things that I never studied and was able to understand (to some extent) enough to be able to translate (and sometimes ask the client /author an intelligent question).
When I suggested nature, I was not aware that this was a feminist text, but that it stemmed from Military/Defense... and we know what difficulties the German military had (and still have) with women wanting to serve (especially if armed).
Sorry for the long post, just to let you all know that here I learnt a lot, yet again... Thank you all for that.

Susan Welsh (asker) Dec 12, 2009:

Keeping question open for awhile The more I ponder the various possibilities suggested, the less sense the sentence, as written, makes to me. If you have to add your own plausible explanation ("social skills," "by nature," etc.), then you may be hitting on what the author intended--but maybe not. I think Elsefien's translation is probably the most accurate, but I really don't know what it would mean. So, I'm keeping the question open for awhile.

Susan Welsh (asker) Dec 10, 2009:

framework Thanks, Kim, that's a good idea.

Kim Metzger Dec 10, 2009:

framework? I wonder if framework would be better in the second example.

Lancashireman Dec 10, 2009:

No thanks. As you rightly point out, KudoZ is indeed a ‘lottery’, with askers often awarding the points on an apparently arbitrary basis, though an endorsement of the asker’s own proposal does not seem to go amiss.

Susan Welsh (asker) Dec 10, 2009:

@ Andrew I hadn't noticed that effect in Kudoz! But I think your proposed translation might be a good one. Stick it up as a proposed solution, and maybe you'll win the Kudoz lottery!

Susan Welsh (asker) Dec 10, 2009:

@ Dr. L For sure it has nothing to do with women's smaller size. Here's another use of Struktur from the same document, to give you an idea:

Um konfliktreduzierend zu wirken und friedensfähige Strukturen zu schaffen...

I translated Strukturen here as "institutions." It's different, of course, from the Kudoz question I asked, but provides another example of where "structure is not structure."

Lancashireman Dec 10, 2009:

By their very presence... Yes. KudoZ is a perfect example of this. ‘By their very presence’, women exert a calming influence on the proceedings.

Dr Lofthouse Dec 10, 2009:

are you sure it doesn't imply they avoid violence because they are generally smaller structurally??