Sociocultural Aspects of AIDS in Africa: Occupational and Gender Issues

Young Women’s Narratives of Lived Experience in Face of Multiple Constraints and Barriers in Tanzania

“…The division of labour in the household, for example, demands that girls and women must work much longer hours than men (see also (Bayles & Bujra, 2000;Setel, 1999;Varkevisser, 1973)). Whilst this family work gives women some power in specific spheres, in general it greatly benefits men who are owners of land and or/household (Akeroyd, 1997) a fact which some men recognize (Swidler & Watkins, 2007). As a result, rural women are far less able to sell their labour in comparison with men, and remain of lower social status, culturally inhibited from asserting their interests in public (Akeroyd, 1997;Bayles & Bujra, 2000).…”

“…Whilst this family work gives women some power in specific spheres, in general it greatly benefits men who are owners of land and or/household (Akeroyd, 1997) a fact which some men recognize (Swidler & Watkins, 2007). As a result, rural women are far less able to sell their labour in comparison with men, and remain of lower social status, culturally inhibited from asserting their interests in public (Akeroyd, 1997;Bayles & Bujra, 2000). In these contexts, girls and young women in rural areas may feel compelled to relocate to urban centres in hopes of being free from patriarchal constraints -to claim forms of autonomy and freedom and to create a different future (McDowell & Pringle, 1992).…”

Anthropology speaks to medicine: the case HIV/AIDS in Africa

“…Manderson traces anthropology's interest in disease to the discipline's "professionalization as an applied science, the interest of other public health scholars in anthropological methods and theories, and the involvement of anthropologists in international health programs of multilateral organizations and bilateral aid programs" (7). Building on anthropologists' earlier work with public health issues, the social science study of AIDS in Africa has required "the efforts of both anthropologists sensitive to public health, biomedical and non-Western healing issues, and anthropologists who seek to analyze the AIDS epidemic as they would any other phenomenon in the field" (8). Manderson evokes a common theme of both schools of anthropology by asserting that anthropological involvement has ensured that "some account is taken of local knowledge, cultural influence on the patterns of disease, and structural barriers to good health" (7).…”

“…During the Handmaiden period, anthropologists supported biomedical research without challenging the traditional public health approach. This early paradigm was characterized by a heavily biomedical emphasis and a largely individualistic bias in understanding HIV/AIDS (8,9).…”

“…Because of frequent associations between identified 'risk groups' and blame, epidemiological research was criticized for creating "scapegoated 'risk groups'" (8,11). Such discourse was criticised by anthropologists for: over-emphasizing symptoms, with depersonalized 'seropositives' which are seen to be typically 'prostitutes' or 'promiscuous people', members of so-called 'high risk groups,' or 'core transmitters,' or 'control populations,' all epidemiological equivalents, linked to 'reservoirs of infection'" (30).…”