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Sexual violence and women's vulnerability to HIV transmission in Malawi: a rights issue
Author(s) -
KatheweraBanda Maggie,
GomileChidyaonga Flossie,
Hendriks Sarah,
Kachika Tinyade,
Mitole Zunzo,
White Seodi
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2451.2005.00582.x
Subject(s) - transactional sex , reproductive health , domestic violence , human sexuality , sexual violence , vulnerability (computing) , sexual transmission , sociology , human rights , gender studies , conceptualization , criminology , economic growth , socioeconomics , political science , population , poison control , medicine , suicide prevention , environmental health , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , economics , demography , law , virology , computer security , artificial intelligence , microbicide , computer science , research methodology
This article explores the connections between sexual violence, gender inequality, and HIV transmission. Beginning with the premise that HIV/AIDS is a gendered pandemic, the article demonstrates the ways that patterns of HIV transmission are structured by gender and social inequalities. This is due in part to the ways in which women's sexual and reproductive health choices are dominated by socio‐cultural expectations and impacted by women's subordinate status in society. Using a country case study from Malawi, Africa, this research demonstrates how the nature and scale of sexual violence impacts both on women's vulnerability to HIV infection and on women's sexual and reproductive health rights. In particular, the article focuses on the conceptualization of sexual violence, the transaction of sex within the local economy and fish industry, and the construction of sex and sexuality as this influences cultural practices and women's vulnerability to HIV transmission. This research finds that Malawian women are situated in a social, legal, and political‐economic environment that sustains unequal gender power relations that tolerate the perpetuation of violence against women and leave them more vulnerable to HIV infection and the infringement of their sexual and reproductive health rights.