Statistics out of Africa in recent years continue to show that women in Africa are more likely than men to contract HIV. Of the people living with HIV and AIDS in Africa, 61% are estimated to be women (UNAIDS, 2008). On top of being more likely to contract HIV, women in most parts of Africa look after the sick, but at the same time have less access to treatment and care. These observations make it essential that all attempts at addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic must include factors that make women susceptible in the first place.

Simple biological explanations like the fact that women are more prone to getting cuts and bruises during sexual intercourse through which the HI virus can enter partly explains why more women are susceptible. On the other hand, circumcision of men has in recent times been shown to reduce the risk of men contracting HIV by 60% as they are less likely to be bruised during intercourse. When it comes to child bearing for women or couples who want to have children and are HIV positive, there are few safe methods of conceiving because the main methods of preventing infection are abstinence and the use of condoms (Baylies, 2001). But such reasons alone do not account for the gender skew of the epidemic in Africa.

 

More importantly, gendered vulnerability is created mainly from the power imbalance which is maintained by various forms of patriarchy. For instance the use of contraceptives and condoms is not entirely in the power of women. Often men dictate how many children they want and have more say in whether or not a condom is used. For this reason it is not surprising that in sub-Saharan Africa married women have born the brunt of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. 

 

Literacy Rates

When it comes to controlling wealth and holding positions of power, again, women are seen to draw the shorter stick. This can be tallied with the observation that women are less likely across Africa to be as educated as men and even if competitively educated, are less likely to gain employment. From the perspective of accessing treatment and care for HIV and AIDS, women are,

Parlimentary Seats

for the most part, unable to access these services even where they are free, like being unable to afford transportation to health centres because they do not have direct control over finacial resources. As things stand on the continent today, women continue to hold few positions of power, especially in governments where many decisions ignore or even worsen gender discrimination. Patriarchal cultural practices like female genital mutilation, early marriage, dowries and widow inheritance continue to contribute to disenfranchising women and making them less able to make their own choices, especially where this choice could be to protect oneself from contracting HIV.

 

Violence against women illustrates the truly ugly side of patriarchy. Gender based violence like rape; especially high in areas experiencing conflict, paedophilia; where girl children are more susceptible and human trafficking of women for sex, worsen the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Where fear is used as a tool of control in ‘monogamous’ relationships, accessing voluntary counselling and treatment becomes difficult as some women cannot make this decision for fear of the violent response from their partners. Wide scale rape is devastating not only on a personal level but especially on a public health level. Thus, treatment, counselling and care of rape victims needs to be paid attention in conflict resolution policies and protocols.

 

Therefore, an effective response to tackling the HIV and AIDS epidemic needs governments, civil society and the international community to recognise gender discrimination in its various forms. A major challenge for multilateral development banks is addressing gender issues directly in reproductive health projects and not just merely recognising them. Antagonising these efforts includes harmful ideologies in the development banks and governments themselves like the privatization of health sectors and religious fundamentalism which has resulted in suppressing women’s rights, discouraging the use of condoms and promotion of ‘age appropriate’ contraception.

 

Governments must honour their commitments to the United Nation’s convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) and MDG number three and six as well as those commitments made in Copenhagen and Beijing in 1995 to ending gender discrimination. Civil society, especially feminist organisations, must continue to act as pressure groups to governments as well as think tanks for solutions on how to make gender equality a reality, an important ingredient to fighting the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

 

Carol Barton. Where to for women’s movements and the MDGs? Gender and Development. 2005, 13:1, pg 25.

 

Carolyn Baylies. Safe motherhood in the time of AIDS. Gender and Development. 2001, 9:2, pg 40.

 

UNAIDS 2008 Annual Report.