WUNRN
HIV/AIDS: 5 Ways to Reduce Women's Vulnerability
to HIV
Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN
Poverty means women often lack the power to opt for safe sex
IRIN/PlusNews presents five important ways to reduce women's vulnerability to
HIV:
*Education:
According to UNAIDS, illiterate women are four times more likely to believe
there is no way to prevent HIV infection, while in Africa and Latin America,
girls with higher levels of education tend to delay first sexual experience and
are more likely to insist their partner use a condom.
Educating girls has the added advantage of delaying their
marriage and increasing their earning ability, both of which reduce their
vulnerability to HIV. Educated women are also more likely to access health
services for themselves and their children, and to oppose negative cultural
practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).
*Access to reproductive health services: In many
developing countries, women have very limited access to vital reproductive
health services. A combination of biological and social factors means women are
more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which, if left
untreated, increase their vulnerability to HIV.
Women living in humanitarian crises are particularly vulnerable to sexual
violence and require services such as free, easily available condoms and safe
blood for transfusions.
Improving access to reproductive health services enables women to make informed
choices in determining family size and preventing mother-to-child HIV
transmission.
*Ending gender violence: One in
three women has been beaten, experienced sexual violence or otherwise abused in
their lifetime, according to the UN; one in five will be a victim of rape or attempted rape.
More often than not, the perpetrators are known to the women.
Practices such as early marriage, FGM/C and human trafficking all increase
women's vulnerability to HIV, but more accepted forms of violence, such as
marital rape, also play a large part in increasing women's HIV risk.
Fast
Facts |
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Experiencing violence
increases the risk of HIV infection by a factor of three |
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Globally, just 38 percent of
young women have accurate, comprehensive knowledge of HIV |
Source: UNAIDS |
According to UNAIDS, investment in HIV programming policies and
addressing gender inequality and gender-based violence will help to achieve
universal targets of HIV prevention, treatment and care.
*Economic empowerment: In his
book, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Richard Robbins states
that women do two-thirds of the world's work but receive 10 percent of the
world's income and own just own 1 percent of the means of production.
Poverty prevents poor women from controlling when sexual intercourse takes
place and if a condom is used, and often forces women into risky transactional
sex to feed themselves and their families.
According to a 2010 US Government study, empowerment
activities such as micro-finance give women access to and control over vital
economic resources, ultimately enhancing their ability not only to mitigate the
impact of HIV, but also to be less vulnerable to HIV.
*Involving men: More
often than not, men control the dynamics of how, when and where sex happens.
Encouraging more men to use condoms consistently has the knock-on effect of
protecting their sexual partners from unwanted pregnancies and sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV.
Men are less likely than women to seek health services; in the case of men
involved with multiple women, this means STIs remain untreated for long periods
while their female partners are also at risk of infection.
Teaching boys and young men to respect women, to be more involved in family
activities and to avoid negative behaviour such as gender violence and alcohol
abuse helps groom a generation of men who are less likely to take risks that
endanger themselves and their families.