Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract
This analysis provides objective arguments to counter the blame ideologies that
indiscriminately posit women’s at-risk behaviour as central to the ineffectiveness of
the anti-HIV/AIDS agenda. The fulcrum of the debate is that as victims of an
institutionally gender-discriminatory society whose structural barriers is significantly
compromising the global struggle against HIV/AIDS, addressing issues of gender-
inequalities, especially in developing countries will empower women to take
responsibility for their health. Holistically, complimenting this ‘health’ approach with
systematic sensitisation programmes should arguably let to enhance outcome in
efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Introduction
1
Lewis, (2004) further asserted that “gender inequality is what sustains and nurtures
the virus”. Referring to the debilitating and gender-induced affliction of women from
HIV/AIDS, Kofi Annan, (2002)’s observation about HIV/AIDS and SSA women was
reiterated by Lewis, (2004) who stated that, “the saddest thing is that the pandemic
increasingly has a women’s face; gender inequality in the face of AIDS is fatal.”
While Payne, (2000, p.63) asserts that ‘there is no society in which men and women
are equal”, or “a society that is not patriarchal”, Goldberg, (1977, p. 26); it is
suggested that “The reason that AIDS has escalated into a pandemic is because
inequality between women and men continues to be pervasive and persistent; there
is a direct correlation between women's low status, the violation of their human rights
and HIV transmission” Heyzer, (2001). As Lewis, (2002) observed, “The challenge
of protecting women and girls from AIDS-related human rights abuses is enormous.
The abuses are many and varied, including rape within and outside of marriage,
other sexual violence and coercion often abetted by poverty, domestic violence,
unequal property and inheritance rights, divorce laws that exacerbate women’s
economic dependence on their husbands, and discriminatory barriers to education
and health services.”
The paradox about the blame ideologies in fighting HIV/AIDS is that while the gender
gap is ever-widening with women being given tokenistic vestige of ‘equality’; and
people engaging in sex more for recreation rather than procreation, society expects
women to be responsible for their health. So to what extent will empowering women
catalyse the prevention of HIV/AIDS? Africa is the stage and women the actors, let
the play begin. My hypothesis is that, without addressing the narrowness of the
political and medical models of changing lifestyle and individual behaviour without
changing the social and economic structures that has disempowered women, the
overall efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic will be futile.”
2
Definition
“HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the retrovirus that may lead to AIDS
(acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Ogden, (2004, p. 329). HIV damages the
body’s defence (immune system), making it more vulnerable to the effects of
opportunistic infections” Thomas and Pierson (1999, p. 169). Once HIV enters the
body, it weakens the immune system so that the infected person can no longer fight
off life-threatening illnesses such as tuberculosis or rare forms of pneumonia or
meningitis- what are called opportunistic infections” Fitzsimons et al, (1995, p. 13).
Background.
My decision to focus but not limit this discourse solely to the visibly impoverished
Sub Sahara Africa is because the “incidence and prevalence of the HIV/AIDS
amongst women in SSA is more acute here than anywhere in the world” Kaye,
(2004, p. 1); Michiels, (2001). Indeed “almost 14 million of the 18 million women
living with HIV/AIDS worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa.” Lobe, (2004).
4
Furthermore, as an indigene of SSA, my in-depth knowledge of the cultures and their
marginalising impact on females gives me a privileged and in-depth knowledge of
the female’s marginalised status. Supplementing this experience, studies amongst
various populations by United Nation’s organisations in SSA are consensual that “as
elsewhere in Africa where poverty-stricken female care-givers lack appropriate exit
options out of abject deprivations, “women are at a greater danger of HIV infection
because they lack agency to refuse high-risk sexual encounters”
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/220072/38. The overarching determinant of
women’s dependency is consensually seen as poverty that leads to social exclusion.
According to Kaye, (2004, p. 4), the problem with poverty in gender inequality
discourses is that poverty seems to be a factor in every aspect of deprivation in
developing countries; although not homogeneously. More so, the notion of poverty is
a social construct; problematic to qualify as well as quantify. Poverty aside, to date
the WHO, (2000) also attributes the failure to adequately address gender inequality
in the prevention of HIV/AIDS partly in SSA to the “lack of systematic data on the
relationship between HIV/AIDS and gender inequality” Yet, further, studies by the
World Health Organisation (WHO) cited in Williams, (1997) posits gender inequality
as “a central and an empirically and robust predictor of variations in morbidity and
mortality of persons infected with HIV/AIDS.” Humanitarian gestures aside; and from
a social as well as economic perspective, social economists see women as nurturers
of the family (the foundation of society) and therefore the pillar that supports nations.
CUSS, (2006, p. 4). With the ravages of HIV/AIDS exacerbating women’s already
chronic deprivation, if the current trend of increasing HIV/AIDS female infection is not
addressed, then gradually it is all the fabric of society that would be decimated.
Thus, while there is still time, preventative policy initiatives need to prioritise the
addressing of “institutional, social and economic constraints that limit women’s ability
to cope with the epidemic” http://www.jendajournal.com/issue7/mutangura.html. Now
which are the areas of significant concerns? Principally, most of the arguments in
this discourse are theories from a human rights perspective.
5
Loss of inheritance rights
6
household heads” Aliber et al, (2004), Strickland, (2004), FAO, 2004). The resulting
life options which predominantly consist of selling or exchanging sex for money and
other forms of child abuse heighten their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Similarly,
UNAIDS, (2002, p. 190) points out that “Children’s deprivation when denied their
inheritance rights is compounded by the paucity of options they have for legal
recourse.” Expounding on the plight of these homeless children, Savenstedt et al.,
(2000) assert that most resort to life on the streets where most girls are preyed upon
by paedophiles and traffickers; maximising their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. The
gender-biased obstacles for victims attempting to assert their rights to property or
inheritance include, “fear of violent reprisal, sluggish bureaucracies and official
indifference” UNAIDS, (2004). As such, these victims of dispossession lack
recourse. The main recommendation emerging from the various studies is “the need
to draw up and prioritise legislation that can protect the land rights of women and
children in policies seeking to address HIV/AIDS. Aliber M, et al., (2004)
In Africa as in the rest of the developing world, it is suggested that, “AIDS has a
woman’s face” http://www.jendajournal.com/issue7/mutangadura.html. In this
seemingly gender-biased statement, women are not only synonymised with
HIV/AIDS, they seem to be blamed for it. In fact, in Sub Sahara Africa, sex workers
are the personification of HIV/AIDS despite the reality that prostitution can only
persist if it satisfies the economic law of supply and demand; prostitution will not
exist without the demand for recreational sex. According to Wilton, (1992, p.56),
“prostitution is not primarily a moral issues but an economic one” derived principally
from women’s lack of appropriate survival options. The resolve to prostitute has
generally been explained by “women’s limited access to economic and social
resources which renders them dependent on men to provide for them.” Fieldhouse,
(2003, p. 8). The reality in the safeguarding of oneself against the potential infection
with HIV/AIDS is that “women who use sex in exchange for gifts, money or services
7
have difficulty negotiating safer sex, as well as obtaining adequate health services”
AIDS Infothek (2000, p. 24). According to WHO, (2000) “these women serve as an
important source of HIV infections for their male clients, once infection is
established.” According to the World Bank (2000), “the role of prostitutes in the
sexual transmission of HIV in Africa is apparent from various studies.” For example
in Africa, the highways serving the multi-national extractive industries have become
red-light environments where;
- The development of prostitution to service truck drivers on transcontinental
trade routes is one example of the ways in which travel interacted with sexual
activity to further the transmission of HIV”
Fieldhouse, ( 2003, p. 9)
While not ignorant of the heighten risk involved in unsafe sex, especially in
prostitution, the WHO, (2000) suggest that “women’s destitution and desperation to
sustain themselves and their families in spite of the visible lack of basic resources in
times of increasing demand on their nurturing services are directly correlated to the
ramifications of gender inequality”. According to UNAIDS, (2004) it is the resulting
dependency and the remedial lifestyle and practices that heightens women’s risk of
contracting HIV/AIDS. Citing the powerlessness to enforce the use of protective
measures like condoms to prevent infection, UNAIDS, (2004) argues that the power
deferential between the man and woman deprives the latter of the right to enforced
safe practice. In SSA where women are perceived and treated as the properties of
their husbands; thanks to the dowry system “the power dynamics of heterosexuality
make it difficult or impossible for women to protect themselves from HIV” Doyal et
al., (2004 p. 3); Wilton, (19923, p. 61). While the logical empowering policy
suggestion would be to initiate and implement policies that would reduce female
dependencies; giving them the assertiveness to make safety and informed decisions
in sexual matters, some analysts rather advocate “the education of men to reduce
their risky lifestyles of multiple partners in addition to the use of condoms in high risk
encounters.” Fieldhouse, (2003, p.10). Nevertheless, and bearing in mind that two-
third of the world’s illiterates are women; WHO, (2000); that by being mostly
economically dependent they are vulnerable and powerless, World Bank, (2000),
any anti HIV/AIDS policy that is underpinned solely on employing women’s
assertiveness to safeguard them against possible infection is bound to be futile.
8
Patriarchy, the African woman and HIV/AIDS
9
HIV/AIDS and the Virgin Myth.
In those African cultures where there is the myth that sex with a virgin can either
safeguard against HIV/AIDS infection or actually cure the disease, UNAIDS (2004)
noted that not only are men increasingly raping girls, children are similarly being
sexually abused. Studies suggest that, “these human right abuses are responsible
for the comparatively high incidences of HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa.” Heyzer,
(2002) Michiels, (2001). WHO, (2000). While most nations treat rapes as criminal
offenses, until developing countries actually enforced punitive legislations to deter
perpetrators, the economic and social cost to the general wellbeing of the respective
nations could be catastrophic. Similar attention also needs to be paid to the practice
of genital circumcision or mutilation. Apart from the fact that such practices invade
the personal privacy of girls this non-medical interventions using rudimentary tools
greatly expose women to infections. In fact, feminist as well as human rights
campaigners including medical professional are consensual that female
circumcisions heighten the risk of HIV/AIDS infection. For ‘rights’ reason and
women’s dignity, the elimination of this practice must take pride of place on all
HIV/AIDS gender-neutral policies.
My experiences of Sub Saharan culture indicates that while women are supposed to
be faithful to their spouse, the entrenched gender inequality allows men to either be
polygamous in their marriage or have extra-marital affairs. While there is consensus
that multiple sexual partnerships heighten the risk of HIV/AIDS infection, for the
patriarchal African man, multiple sexual partnerships is synonymous with being
macho. Discriminatorily and as typified in ‘Sharia laws’, female prostitution or female
infidelity is not only perceived as deviant, it carries such stigma that can socially
exclude ‘promiscuous’ women from proactive participation in most social and cultural
activities. From a moral perspective, in SSA “there has always been an association
between sickness and sin; the undeserving and the guilty.” Awasum, (2006, 7).
10
Consequently, women’s health within the context of HIV/AIDS prevention is not only
a key concept of self and health, but is intrinsically connected with morals and
responsibility. Thus prejudicially for women in SSA, being diagnosed as HIV/AIDS
positive or being associated with promiscuity is synonymous with “badness”,
“immorality” and “irresponsibility”. Compared to men, women diagnosed as HIV/AIDS
positive are seen as having departed from the socially accepted behaviour worthy of
the righteous and therefore undeserving of any sympathy. The label, stigma and
negative symbolisms surrounding HIV/AIDS and involving women’s implicit image of
the contagious, sexually deviant and irresponsible person are arguably significant
constraints in the decisions to self-present for HIV/AIDS diagnosis or treatment. To
encourage women, especially prostitutes to self-present for diagnosis, and therefore
mitigate potential infection, relevant communities need to be educated against the
prevailing prejudicial blame practice. More so, the myths of the macho man with
multiple sex partners need to be discouraged. The problem with implementing
preventative HIV/AIDS policy is that there are no implicit ways of either enforcing of
monitoring what are virtually people’s private lives. Bearing in mind that gender
inequality stands accused of exacerbating the spread of HIV/AIDS, dogmas that
advocate abstinence are self-defeating since they collude to control the sex life of
women. Even the customary ‘say no’ approach can never be effective in the
economic and social circumstances where women are compelled by multiple
deprivation rather than objective choice to succumb to risky sex lifestyles. For
example, in Cameroon as elsewhere in patriarchal Sub Saharan Africa (SSA),
studies carried out in Zambia showed that, “Less than a quarter of Zambian married
women believe they can refuse sex with their husbands; only 11 percent said they
could ask him to use condoms (UNAIDS 2000). This gender-induced compliance to
unsafe sex with persons whose lifestyles makes them HIV/AIDS liability is directly or
indirectly attributable to the ramifications of gender inequality. As earlier noted, in
some African cultures, gender inequality or women’s powerlessness is evident in the
practice of widow inheritance. Traditionally, widows are supposed to be inherited by
the next of the kin for assimilation into the family after the death of the husband.
Another major gender-based determinant in the spread of HIV/AIDs in SSA is the
extent of sexual encounters between older men and adolescent girls. According to a
literature review by Loewenson and Whiteside, (1997) “over 45 studies reviewed
found that this is the norm, including a widespread transactional component.” These
11
reviewers further point out that “the greater the age difference between them, the
greater the girls’ risk of infection, due to the power imbalance, and increase in unsafe
behaviours, such as non-use of condoms and multiple partners for both the men and
the girls (ibid.)
- “to push for the formulation and implementation of policies, which can
facilitate integration of women into mainstream economic processes;
including improving access to education by girls, guaranteeing sexual and
reproductive health rights, ensuring women's wealth and inheritance rights,
increasing women's share in political and public office and redoubling efforts
to combat violence against women and the girl child.”
While her recommendations seem very rational, with the potential to succeed, the
concern will be how men who have hitherto dominated women would react to any
challenge to their despotic or autocratic attitudes. In the Cameroons, research by the
Centre Universitaire de Science de la Santé (CUSS, 2006, p.16) is indicative that,
using the power of the all-powerful chiefs; the church and elders, all of whom are
held with very high and unquestionable esteem, to educate men not only to respect
women, but to dissuade them from polygamy and multiple sexual partners is
significantly reducing both the prevalence and incidence of the HIV/AIDS in the
country. This policy approach is informed by the fact that in most of SSA, “elders are
traditional educators, teachers and purveyors of cultural values, ideals, and rituals;
younger people are accustomed to viewing them as repositories of wisdom,
guidance, and advice May, (2003). As in Cameroon, these assets could be utilised in
developing effective gender-neutral interventions, as could the potential of using the
all-powerful chiefs (men) to provide peer counselling and dogmatic advice to their
13
subjects on the respect of female and the practice of safe sex. Equally important,
there is an urgent need for developing countries to take measures to empower
women who dwell in rural areas as farmers. This can be done through the
transformation of agriculture from low value-added primary production, to the
production of less labour intensive; high value-added finished products that can
compete in international markets. It is imperative that governments implement
policies that will encourage agro-based industries and enable agriculture to go
beyond the level of subsistence and to the market-place. This commercialisation of
traditional farming will inject new dimensions into the profile of women, expose them
to the world of commerce and improve their incomes. This is what Malaysia did with
spectacular success where in addition to legalised land rights, the marketisation of
surplus agricultural products enhanced women’s independent abilities to sustain
themselves and relevant dependents. Not having to dependent on men, meant that
women would not have to succumb to unsolicited and risky sexual encounters that
hitherto heightened their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
While preceding examples have been locally-based, at an international level, there is
need for relevant agencies of the United Nations to initiate and enforce legislations
that compel countries to safeguards women’s rights. As a precedent, in July 2001
the UN General Assembly held a Special Session on HIV/AIDS calling on States to
“enact, strengthen or enforced as appropriate, legislation, regulations and other
measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination, in multi-sectoral national strategies
that address the stigma and gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic”. May,
(2003) Specifically, the declaration called for measures to be taken “to increase the
capacities of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV
infection, principally through the provision of healthcare services, including sexual
and reproductive health, and through prevention education that promotes gender
equality within a culturally gender-sensitive framework.” UNAIDS, (2001)
14
Appraisal
Policy suggestion
16
Conclusion
17
Bibliography HIV
Aliber M, et al., (2004) The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Land Rights: Case Studies From
Kenya. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa Publishers,
Alcock, C. Et al (2000) Introducing Social Policy. London: Prentice Hall
Annan K, 2002. In Africa, AIDS Has A Woman’s Face. New York Times, New York.
Awasum, G. (2006). HIV/AIDS and Domestic Violence. Yaoundé: Centre
Universitaire De La Santé (CUSS)
Burr, V. (1995) An Introduction to Social Construction. London: Rutledge
CUSS (2006). HIV/AIDS: A Moral Perspective. Yaoundé: Centre Universitaire De La
Santé (CUSS)
Dottridge, M. (2004) Kids as Commodities? Child trafficking and what to do about it.
Germany: Terres des Hommes.
Doyal, L. Et al., (2004) AIDS: Setting a Female Agenda. London: Taylor and Francis.
Fortmann, L. (2001). Why Women’s Property Rights Matter, Paper presented at the
Conference on Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation in Southern Africa, convened
by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network. Pretoria: Human Sciences
Research Council.
Garcia, M. (2007). AIDS has a Woman’s Face: Gender, Race and AIDS in Africa
and the US. Washington DC: Africa Action.
Goldberg, S. (1977) The Inevitability of Patriarchy. London: Temple Smith.
18
Heyzer, N. (2002) Abuse of Women and Girls that Fuel HIV/AIDS. New York:
UNIFEM
Hooper , D and Dryden, W. (1994) Psychotherapy Handbook: couple Therapy.
Buckingham: Open University Press.
Human Right Watch, (2003) “Policy Paralysis: A Call for Action on HIV/AIDS-Related
Human Rights Abuses Against Women and Girls in Africa,” New York: HRW.
Kaye, D.K. (2004) Gender inequality and domestic violence: implication for human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Uganda: Makerere Medical School.
Lewis, S. (2004) AIDS has a woman’s face: Keynote speech at the Microbicides
2004 stressing the centrality of sexism to the pandemic. New York: MS Magazine.
Lobe, M. (2004) Feminization of AIDS Defies Bush's ABC Strategy. Washington DC.
Common dreams NewsCentre. http://www.commondreams.org.
19
Ogden, J. (2004). Health Psychology: A Text Book 3rd edn. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Payne, G. (2000) Social Divisions. London: Macmillan Thomas, M. and Pierson, J.
Dictionary of social work. London: HarperCollins Publishers
UNAIDS, (2001) Fighting HIV-related intolerance: exposing the link between racism,
stigma and discrimination. Geneva: OHCHR (High Commissioner for Human
Rights)
UNAIDS, (2002) Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, Orphans and Vulnerable
Children: A Situation Analysis, Zambia. Geneva: Joint USAID/UNICEF/SIDA Study
Fund Project.
UNAIDS, (2004). Facing the Future Together: Report of the Secretary General’s
Task Force on Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. Geneva: UNAIDS
UNIFEM, (2005) HIV/AIDS: A Gender Equality and Human Rights Issue. New York:
United Nations
WHO, (2000) Fighting HIV-related Intolerance: Exposing the links between Racism,
Stigma and Discrimination. New York: the WHO.
World Bank (2000) Confronting AIDS: Promoting Gender quality. New York: Oxford
University .
20
Wilton, T. (1992) Antibody Politics: AIDS and Society. Cheltenham: New Clarion
Press.
www.africaaction.org.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/220072/38.
http://www.jendajournal.com/issue7/mutangura.html.
http://statehousekenya.go.ke/oafla/speeches/f-lady/june05/2005020601.htm.
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/human/gender/una99e16.pdf
http://www.unfpa.org/gender/index.
21