Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS affects women worldwide. Elderly women bear a disproportionate burden of caring for those who are afflicted with the disease, while young women increasingly comprise the majority of new HIV cases. Intervention programs often fail to take into account the particular situations and behaviors that make women more vulnerable than men. Though policy debates increasingly include women and gender considerations, funds and resources for women, especially those already suffering with HIV/AIDS, remain inadequate. Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS gives voice to the experience of individual women whose personal stories reveal the daily struggles and concerns that fill their lives, but are ignored in the larger dialogues about HIV/AIDS. Women and men from diverse backgrounds discuss the differences between women within and across cultures and how particular traditions and attitudes can affect the prevention of, or vulnerability to, HIV/AIDS. The authors address not only women's empirical experiences, but also their personal feelings, beliefs, and expectations as reflected in their narratives. Approaching the issue from several disciplines, Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS paves the way for the empowerment of women by bringing them directly into the debates concerned with their protection against HIV/AIDS. This collection, edited by two well-known scholars in this field, provides a much-needed critical examination of the interventions and policies that do not yet fully address the needs and limitations of women and girls suffering with, or confronting the possibility of, infection.

LYNELLYN D. LONG is the Population Council's Representative in Vietnam and an adjunct faculty member of The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. E. MAXINE ANKRAH is the associate director for the AIDSCAP Women's Initiative of Family Health International (FHI)