Physicians for Human Rights released a study citing economic and cultural inequality of women as contributing to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, particularly in Botswana and Swaziland, 2 countries with the highest HIV prevelance in the world. The report cites a myraid of reasons, to include medical explanations on how biology predisposes women more then men to contracting HIV. Some of the most compelling reasons discrimination against women leads to a higher HIV infection rates includes the fact that many women in the region do not control their own sexuality. Women are often subordinate to their husbands in damaging ways:
Analysis of the community survey data demonstrates that holding gender discriminatory attitudes is predictive of the sexual risk-taking that increases vulnerability to HIV. Participants who held three or more gender discriminatory beliefs had 2.7 times the odds of having unprotected sex in the past year with a non-primary partner as those who held fewer beliefs.50 Certain specific beliefs were also associated with unprotected sex for women or men; for example, women who believed that a man may beat his spouse or partner if he believes she is having sex with other men had 2.8 times the odds of unprotected sex with a non-primary partner.51
The press release included the following example of how this discrimination leads to higher rates of HIV:
In Botswana, customary courts reflect social norms by viewing adultery as a crime only if it is committed by women, thereby legitimizing discriminatory stigmatization and punishment of women for having multiple sexual partnerships, while tolerating such practices among men.121
The report also states:
As the reasons suggest, women’s lack of control was evident in reports of condom non-use. Fifty-three percent of women surveyed, compared with 13 percent of men, reported not using a condom in the past year in at least one instance because their partner refused; 22 percent of women, versus 7 percent of men, agreed that they had no control over whether their partner used a condom or not.
Interestingly, the report found that economic inequality was the most significant contributer to vulnerability to HIV because this forced women to be subordinate on men, compounding their lack of control over their sexuality.
