Citation

Kathewera‐Banda M, Gomile‐Chidyaonga F, Hendriks S, Kachika T, Mitole Z, White S. Int. Soc. Sci. J. 2005; 57(186): 649-660.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, UNESCO, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2451.2005.00582.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

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.