Gender and AIDS: time to act

Abstract

Gender has long been recognized as being key to understanding and addressing HIV and AIDS. Gender roles and relations that structure and legitimate women’s subordination and simultaneously foster models of masculinity that justify and reproduce men’s dominance over women exacerbate the spread and impact of the epidemic. Notions of masculinity prevalent in many parts of the world that equate being a man with dominance over women, sexual conquest and risk-taking are associated with less condom use, more sexually transmitted infections, more partners, including more casual partners, more frequent sex, more abuse of alcohol and more transactional sex. They also contribute to men accessing treatment later than women and at greater cost to public health systems. The imperative of addressing the gender dimensions of AIDS has been clearly and repeatedly articulated. Many interventions have been shown to be effective in addressing gender-related risks and vulnerabilities including programmes designed to reach and engage men, improve women’s legal and economic position, integrate gender-based violence prevention into HIV services, and increase girls’ access to secondary and tertiary education. Despite this, the political will to act has been sorely lacking and not nearly enough has been done to hold governments and multilateral institutions to account. This paper argues that we can no longer simply pay lip service to the urgent need to act on what we know about gender and AIDS. Simply put, it is time to act.

Masculinity, vulnerability and prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS among male adolescents: social representations in a land reform settlement

“…On the use of barrier methods during sexual intercourse, 27.3% and 54.5% of the adolescents reported never and eventually using condoms, In fact, several studies show the representations that adolescent have to feel invulnerable to STD/HIV/ AIDS (3,18) . This finding is consistent with the alarming epidemiological data about high morbidity-mortality and resistance of the male population in Brazil, seeking health services because of the disease and the search for primary care have been considered a sign of male weakness and contributes so that men, in all life cycles, are deemed invulnerable (19)(20) .…”

“…All settled school adolescents were invited to participate in the study, and the selection proceeded that during the process of data collection there was a concern about the privacy of individuals, because for the male teenager to talk about his own sexuality is still replete with taboos, beliefs and cultural values (3) .…”

Construcción de un índice de riesgo para la infección por el VIH y su relación con la doble moral y el poder diádico en adolescentes

“…Es decir, cuando una mujer toma decisiones sobre sus relaciones de pareja y/o sexuales, aumenta la probabilidad de que utilice el preservativo. Estos resultados son similares a los obtenidos por Greig et al (2008) y Pulerwitz et al (2002, donde se concluye que tener poder en la relación implica un mayor uso del preservativo. Además, otros estudios explican el bajo uso del preservativo a partir del bajo poder en la relación de las mujeres (Fernández-Esquer et al, 2004;Harvey et al, 2002).…”

“…Una posible explicación a este hecho es que las mujeres tienen menor poder en sus relaciones de pareja (Fernández-Esquer, Atkinson, Diamond, Useche y Mendiola, 2004;Harvey, Beckman, Browner, y Sherman, 2002). A su vez, este bajo poder en las relaciones se explica por el hecho de que, en sociedades patriarcales, se espera que el varón domine las relaciones sociales y sexuales y que la mujer se muestre sumisa, lo que, junto con evaluar conductas sexuales como inmorales o no en función del sexo del emisor de dichas conductas, se conoce como doble moral (Dávila, 2002;Greig, Peacock, Jewkes y Msimang, 2008).…”

“…Prueba de ello, es que las mujeres, con alta adhesión a la doble moral, con mayor frecuencia se mantienen abstinentes sexualmente y son más reacias a hablar de aspectos relacionados con la sexualidad (Jackson y Cram, 2003;Leftkowitz, Boone y Shearer, 2004). Desde la hipótesis contraria, el varón sería el que forzaría a la mujer a adoptar prácticas sexuales desprotegidas (Dávila, 2002;Greig et al, 2008). Pulerwitz, Amaro, De Jong, Gortmaker y Rudd (2002) indican que las mujeres con mayor poder sobre la relación de pareja presentan una mayor probabilidad de hacer un uso consistente del preservativo.…”