Women at Risk: Gender and AIDS in Africa

Citation:

Seidel, Gill. 1993. "Women at Risk: Gender and AIDS in Africa." Disasters 17 (2): 133-42.

Author: Gill Seidel

Abstract:

AIDS in Africa is a gender, development and rights issue involving power and differential access to resources. The risk situations for women stressed in development contexts of war, destabilization and displacement, and the many contexts of transactional sex, are poorly understood by policy makers and the medical community. The dominant epidemiological paradigm has focused on female 'prostitutes' in a number of African cities. The limitations of this approach are discussed, as are the different contextualized meanings of sexual exchange. The importance of women's experience of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and their perceptions of risk are stressed, as is the need for non-judgmental services linked to primary and comprehensive health care. Most health promotion messages construct an image of women as prostitutes, or seek to mobilize women as carers and educators of families and communities.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa

Year: 1993