Women and Aids in Zimbabwe: The Making of an Epidemic

Abstract

As the AIDS epidemic in Africa assumes major proportions, the need to understand the social context in which heterosexual transmission occurs takes on urgent importance. In this article we explore how the intersection of traditional culture with the colonial legacy and present-day political economy has influenced family structure and sexual relations, and particularly the social position of women. Drawing on Zimbabwe's historical experience, we show how land expropriation, rural impoverishment, and the forcible introduction of male migrant labor fostered new patterns of sexual relations, characterized by multiple partners. Traditional patriarchal values reinterpreted in European law resulted in further subjugation of women as even limited rights to ownership were withdrawn. For many women, sexual relations with men, either within marriage (for the majority) or outside, become inextricably linked to economic and social survival. In this setting, all sexually transmitted diseases became rampant, including genital ulcer, which facilitates transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Intervention programs to halt the spread of AIDS need to take into the account the epidemic's historical roots and social nature. For example, efforts to reduce risk of HIV transmission should seek to expand women's limited options, both technically (e.g., by providing alternatives to condoms) and socially (e.g., by promoting employment).

Reframing Women's Risk: Social Inequalities and HIV Infection

“…Upon returning home, these men then introduced HIV into their families (132). Analyses of women and AIDS in Zimbabwe (11) and South Africa (78) have reported comparable findings.…”

“…It was a way out, that's how I saw it" (53, p. 389). Political economy of health analyses of AIDS as a disease of development have linked spread of HIV to global economic interests structured by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (11,52,78,97,132). Schoepf, for example, has described how women in Zaire have survived amidst macroeconomic conditions that underscore already pervasive gender inequality in the labor market and in childbearing decision-making.…”

Safer Sex and Reproductive Choice: Findings from “Positive Women: Voices and Choices” in Zimbabwe

“…5,6 Most commonly, women said that it was their husbands who refused to use condoms, and there is no doubt that men in Zimbabwe prefer not to use condoms. 7 However, many women also felt that condoms were inappropriate within marriage.…”

Integrating the Roles of Stakeholders in Preventing the Hiv/Aids Transmission in East Java, Indonesia

“…4 A number of Zimbabwean lived secret lives characterised by constant concern of relevation. 5 Furthermore, HIV studies in patrilineal Zimbabwe have predictably centered on female prostitutes as dangerous disseminators of, 6 the risk of vertical transmission to their children, 7 and women as caregivers for orphans or people living with HIV (PLHIV). 8 In addition, Gona (2015) reports that Zimbabwean women area unit are at a high risk for HIV infection yet usually aren't the main focus of inquiry unless they're participants in controlled trials.…”