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Abstract

This preliminary study explored relationships between women's empowerment and HIV prevention on the national and individual level with a focus on Botswana. Among sub-Saharan Africa countries, HIV prevalence was positively correlated with indirect indicators of women's empowerment relating to their education (female enrollment in secondary education and ratio of female to male secondary school enrollment), but not to their economic status (female share of paid employment in industry and services) or political status (women's share of seats in national parliament), while controlling for gross national income, percentage of births attended, and percentage of roads paved. Condom use at last sexual encounter was positively and significantly correlated with both indicators of women's educational empowerment, but was not significantly related to the other two indices. Empowerment at the individual level was explored through a preliminary quantitative survey of 71 sexually active women in Gaborone, Botswana, that was conducted in February 2001. Regression analyses showed that women's negotiating power and economic independence were the factors most strongly related to condom use, and did not show that education was a crucial factor. Economic independence was the factor most strongly related to negotiating power. These results suggest that in Botswana, HIV prevention efforts may need to improve women's negotiating skills and access to income-generating activities.

Choice-Disability and HIV Infection: A Cross Sectional Study of HIV Status in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland

“…Our finding of an association between serious poverty (insufficient food in the last week) and HIV infection is in line with the finding in a cross-sectional study in Botswana and Swaziland that women who reported insufficient food were also more likely to report risky sexual behaviours such as inconsistent condom use, transactional sex, and intergenerational sex [56], but at first glance contrasts with the finding from DHS surveys in sub-Saharan Africa that HIV prevalence was higher in wealthier households [57]. A small study in Botswana found economic independence to be strongly associated with negotiating power and condom use, whereas education was not a crucial factor [58]. Among those who had remunerated employment in our study, people with higher earning employment were at higher risk; this factor dropped out of the multivariate model including extreme poverty.…”

Gendered Empowerment and HIV Prevention: Policy and Programmatic Pathways to Success in the MENA Region

“…35,36 Research now also shows that economic independence for women is a factor that is strongly related to negotiating safer sex. 37 Thus, the combination of HIV/AIDS prevention and economic initiates could produce important synergies that extend beyond the economic realm to “empower women” and provide more enduring protection from HIV/AIDS risks than HIV/AIDS prevention can do alone.…”

Risk factors for physical domestic violence in a high-prevalence HIV setting: findings from Project Accept baseline data (HPTN-043)

“…A number of reports from sub-Saharan Africa have revealed an association between violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) 6 and, more specifically, HIV infection in women. 7-13 A range of associations between domestic violence and HIV has also been documented. Acts of domestic violence, which include sexual assault, are frequently associated with STI infections such as bacterial vaginosis.…”