Gender Issues
Gender-related issues should inform HIV advocacy at every level. Gender inequalities—reflected in socioeconomic status, traditional gender roles, and domestic violence—can prevent women living with HIV from accessing adequate care and maintaining their well-being. HIV also disproportionately affects those who do not conform to traditional gender norms; transgender individuals face substantial obstacles to care and prevention due to discrimination, the threat of violence, and other barriers. Resources available here discuss, analyze, and suggest advocacy strategies that deal with gender issues directly, including discrimination based on gender and gender identity, health care access, domestic violence, sex work, harm reduction, and reproductive rights.
HIGHLIGHTED RESOURCE
Gender, Sexuality, Rights and HIV: An Overview for Community Sector Organizations
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations
.jpg) This analysis tackles the ways gender and sexuality influence HIV risks, transmission, and treatment, with an eye toward the obstacles that community service organizations must overcome in order to provide services successfully. It outlines factors in the following categories: socio-cultural factors, such as gender inequity in marriage, traditional gender roles, and homophobia; economic factors, such as poverty and lack of access to education; political factors, such as inaccurate or ineffective HIV prevention efforts and discriminatory laws; and program and services access factors, such as stigma and lack of access to treatment.
Click here to download.
HIGHLIGHTED RESOURCE
Saving Lives Now: Female Condoms and the Role of U.S. Foreign Aid
Center for Health and Gender Equity
.jpg) This report focuses on the role that female condoms can play in HIV prevention, and how the United States needs to be the leader in global distribution of, and education about, female condom use. The document’s executive summary explains that, “as international donors and country governments move forward with plans to make male circumcision more accessible and invest millions of dollars into developing microbicides and vaccines, they cannot afford to overlook the only available HIV prevention intervention that was designed to allow women to initiate protection: female condoms.” Click here to download.
External Links
The Body: Sex, Gender, and HIV
Accessible information about HIV treatment, prevention, testing, public policy, and other issues.
Gender and AIDS Web Portal
Up-to-date information on the gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
An international network run by and for women living with HIV.
Unifem
Resources and tools on HIV/AIDS, poverty, violence, and human rights as they affect women.
United Nations Population Fund: Gender Dimensions of HIV/AIDS
Information and resources on how gender affects the HIV epidemic worldwide.
Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease (WORLD)
A community of women living with HIV/AIDS and their supporters, providing information, support, and networking.
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