Gender Constructs and Women's Vulnerability to HIV

Understanding how gender affects women and men's vulnerability to sexual and reproductive health problems entails more than just identifying women and men's roles in society. It requires linking gender to other social factors. Akshay Khanna, a lawyer from India, examined how women's social position and lack of rights is codified in law. Indian law in essence defines wives as husbands' property, rather than persons in their own right. They thereby have no rights to insist on safer sex, to demand their husbands use condoms or refuse to have sexual relations. If women leave their husbands, courts may order them to return. Divorced and widowed women have no rights to marital property; however, widows become subject to the authority of their fathers-in-law while divorced women revert back to the status of unmarried persons who in theory have all the constitutional rights of individual citizens. What makes the situation more complex is the fact that religious precepts also influence marital rights. Khanna acknowledged the difficulties but stressed the importance of changing laws so that there is a context for women's empowerment. He added, however, that many people would not abide by laws if they feel these contradict their religion.

Agnes Westwater, an Australian medical anthropologist, described how civil riots between Christians and Muslims in Ambon/Maluku, Indonesia, led to increased risk situations in Banda when Malukan refugees arrived there. Whereas previously, communities had no nightlife after 9 pm and few opportunities for men to engage in extramarital sex on the island, the arrival of newcomers resulted in the opening of brothels, the availability of pornography, and an increase in drunkenness and domestic violence. Community reactions included attacks on sex workers, the establishment of morals committees and "morals meetings". However, discussion of sexuality remains a taboo subject and open distribution of condoms was prohibited. STI statistics seem to imply that traveling men have STIs treated before returning home, in order to uphold their image as good men.

Nguyen Thi Tram Anh of Vietnam spoke about gender-based ideas about "good" and "bad" women.Vietnamese men generally prefer to marry virgins ("good" women), yet women are encouraged from a very early age to make themselves sexually attractive to men. Women grow up thinking they must be sexually attractive yet sexually abstinent until marriage. Some young women (e.g. university students) "resolve" this conflict by acceding to demands for sexual intercourse from their steady partners by convincing themselves they are obeying their future husbands' demands for sex. Considerable numbers of these men thereafter abandon the women in order to marry "good" women. The session concluded with discussion about the definitions of "good" and "bad" men. Is the only option for "bad" women to marry "bad" men? Such questions highlight the fact that gender concepts applicable to both women and men need to be analysed, debated with communities and changed in order to achieve more equitable relationships, increase women's options for self-protection and reduce risk situations for men and women.