Gender Roles Determine Societal Attitudes to HIV

Women: facing a disproportionately high risk?
While such attitudes increase the risk of HIV infection for both men and women, they do so disproportionately for women. Few women have the social space or sanction to develop a sense of self - an 'I'. But a lack of self usually means that women are unlikely to take cognizance of 'themselves' at risk. Protecting the husband, of course. The daughter, yes. But protecting the self is just not a concern, let alone a priority.

Gender roles determine societal attitudes to HIV-positive men and women

Single man (+ve)
-He is let off with a 'boys will be boys look'
-He may marry without revealing HIV status

Single woman (+ve)
-She is labelled a slut
-She is not expected to get married

Client(MAN) (+ve)
-He is never blamed for spreading HIV, even though it is biologically easier for him to do so.

Sex worker(WOMAN) (+ve)
-She is blamed for spreading the epidemic

Husband (-ve)
-He is encouraged to remarry
-He is not expected to look after her(wife)
-His sexual needs are acknowledged

Wife (+ve)
-She is suspected of infidelity
-She may face violence or desertion
-She is expected to perform household tasks
-Her sexual needs are neglected
-Her treatment is not guaranteed

Husband (+ve)
-He becomes financially dependant on his wife
-He (typically) won't tell her how he got HIV
-His sexual behaviour may not change
Wife (-ve)-She becomes breadwinner
-She does 'triple duty' - home care, work
-She wants to know how he got it, but can't ask
-Her sexual needs are not acknowledged

Even when women are persuaded that they are at risk of HIV, it is difficult for them to initiate preventitive action. An overall power imbalance between men and women means that women are unable to question men about wexual behavious, initiate a dialogue of any kind within a relationship, or assert their preferences. While men are more likely than women to initiate and control sexual interactions and decision-making, the emphasis on male sexual pleasure also acts as a barrier to sager sex negotiation by women.

Husband (+ve)
-He is usually favoured for treatment & care
Wife (+ve)
-Her care & treatment are neglected

Pregnant wife (+ve)
-She is expected to put her unborn child's welfare above her own needs
-She is either denied an abortion or coerced into it - the choice may not be hers
-She is given medical treatment that often compromises her health and needs
-She is blamed as an irresponsible mother-to-be

Widower (+ve)
-His family may not desert him
-He retains his property
-He is rarely blamed for his wife's death

Widow (+ve)
-She may be abandoned by in-laws
-Her natal family may not accept her
-She may be forced to support herself & her children
-Her property may be unsurped
-She may be stigmatized and blamed for his death

Gender : distributing the HIV burden unequally
If women face a disproportionately high risk due to their social status, women also face a greater share of the HIV burden. All women - single, married , pregnant, widowed or in prostitution - face the whiplash of gender when it comes to HIV. A single woman who gets HIV, for instance, will immediately be labelled a slut, while a single man who is infected will escape societal disapproval with a 'boys will be boys' nod and wink. Similarly, a sex worker will be blamed for spreading infection - not her client, who is anatomically more capable of spreading HIV more widely.

In the same way, married women face many dilemmas on getting infected. To have a child or not? Is a question that assumes monumental overtones, since fertility is a deeply valued personal and social goal that defines the self-worth and social identity of a woman. Married women whose husbands are also infected must often walk the tightrope between balancing their own needs versus those of their partners, while uninfected women with infected partners suddenly find themselves balancing old and new roles of caregiver and breadwinner.

In this, and other ways, HIV/AIDS remains yet another arena where traditional gender struggles continue to be played out at all structural levels - in the family, in the community, and in society at large.

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Social Construction of India

Like every other epidemic, AIDS develops in the cracks and crevices of society's inequalities…"

Most of us are born female or male, but learn to be girls and boys who grow into women and men. While growing up, we realize that men and women are different at the biological level: our bodies differ and men can't reproduce. Most of us also learn that society has different rules for men and women, rules that have little to do with our biological differences.

Society typically constructs men and women almost as if they are flip sides of a coin: dominant/dominating, aggressive/passive, authoritative/docile, tough/frail. These qualities are not just harmless attributes; embedded in them are gender roles and scripts that many of us will play out for the rest of our lives.


SOCIETY typically constructs

Man as
Aggressive, Authoritative, Bold, Breadwinner,
Promiscuous, Proud, Reckless, Tough, Violent

Woman as
Abstinent, Chaste, Dcile, Domestic, Frail
Monogamous, Obedient, Sacrificing, Timid


Gender roles typically place women in positions of powerlessness vis-à-vis men. A 'real' man is one who does as he pleases, never mind the risk to his female partner. A 'good' woman would never dream of asking her husband to wear a condom, even in the age of HIV/AIDS. Ultimately, gender expectations that compel men and women to be 'real' men and 'good' women end up making both sexes more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

At risk of HIV infection: a gerdered risk
At the individual level, this social construction translates into typical 'gendered' attitudes and behaviours such as those expressed in the following statements. These statements reveal that the risk of getting HIV is a gendered risk, one that strongly depends on the actions and behaviours of individual men and women playing out gender roles that society has constructed for them.

Playing out the sctipt of dominant/dependant makes women vulnerable to infection in many ways. At the direct level, economic dependence means that a woman who is at risk has no options; she must continue to live in a situation that places her at risk. But living in situations of continuing dependence exposes a woman to risk in a more fundaamental way: she can never develop the sense of self that is necessary for one to even conceive of reducing one's risk.

Social construction is translated into

INDIVIDUAL behavious and attitudes


Man - "So what if l'm positive? Don't tell her"
Woman- "My parents decide who l will marry"

Man -"I don't like wearing condoms"
Woman- "My partner refuses to wear condoms"

Man -"I have sex with different women every week"
Woman- "My man sleeps with other women"

Man -"I am a man - l have needs"
Woman- "He may beat me if l ask him where he went"

Man -"I forced her to sleep with me"
Woman- "I was raped last year"

Man -"Arre, why go to a doctor unnecessarily?"
Woman- "My family only takes me to a Dr if l am very ill"

Man -"I support her - she should do what l want"
Woman- "How can l leave him? I have no money of my own"

Man -"I, me , myself…l, me, myself"
Woman- "I? Sho am l" Wife, mother? Self, what self?"

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