Meet the Expert: Gender & Sexuality

Geeta Rao Gupta, President, International Centre for Research on Women, United States

Stigma is the single greatest challenge in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. After three decades there are some medical and behavioural interventions that have proven to be useful, however, many of these are rendered ineffective by an abstract attitudinal barrier. Stigma is originates with ignorance, fear and social inequality and exclusion. Fear and ignorance can be dealt with through information and education, however existing social inequalities and exclusions promote stigma that further burdens an already vulnerable group. The already present power imbalance between genders means that women face the brunt of stigma. Women are often blamed for their own HIV/AIDS status when it was the partner who gave it to them. Often communities will offer more support to the man and little sympathy for the women. Many women become aware of their status through antenatal clinics and thus become the first one in the family to know and are then considered the cause.

Stigma is a barrier that compromises the rights of individuals. It is a barrier that requires normative changes in gender roles to be overcome. Many lessons have been learnt in what it takes to promote normative changes. The first important lesson is to do no harm when promoting programs, women should be participants, seen as actors rather than victims, the focus should be on long term gains and programs should refrain form promoting moral judgments. It is important to disseminate accurate and clear information to debunk myths and misconceptions. Men, significant community members and health care providers should be recruited, educated and cultivated to act as gatekeepers and change agents. Influential community people from different groups should be linked with advocates and spokespeople. And finally laws and policies need to be changes to reduce stigma by law and drive the social change. The root cause of stigma is social inequality and to address that needs community mobilisation and political action.