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December 2000 Insights Issue #35
Back to Insights #35
Targeting men for a change
How can women fight against AIDS without the cooperation
of men? A recent global shift towards the recognition that men are
driving the AIDS epidemic raises two key challenges: to devise campaigns
which treat men as individuals, and secondly to remember that what needs
changing is not individual men and women but the relations between them.
Women in Tanzania and Zambia are actively addressing the
HIV epidemic, according to recent research by the universities of
Bradford and Leeds. Women are the main carers when people fall sick, for
example, they support orphans and provide the backbone for most
voluntary efforts to raise awareness and change behaviour.
Yet, almost everywhere women struggle with minimal
support from men and inadequate resources. In some cases men even
sabotage their efforts. Yet there are indications of minor shifts in
male behaviour born out of a desire for self-preservation, that are
nevertheless beneficial to women. Women are increasingly prepared, as
men are beginning to realise, to challenge male dominance. Further
findings indicate that men:
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still make key family decisions, appropriate the
product of women’s labour, expect to marry younger women and have
extra-marital relationships
-
have a high risk of contracting HIV from multiple
partnering
Some changes are evident, however. Men:
-
realise that their propensity to control women is
undermined by women’s increasing economic and social independence
-
have begun talking about how to protect themselves
from AIDS whilst still asserting male prerogatives
-
often counsel younger men to control their sexual
urges or to use condoms
-
claim they are having safer sex with fewer partners
- condom sales have risen dramatically.
-
rethink gender roles when forced to care for the
sick or orphans.
AIDS campaigns are now beginning to target men, but they
are often confined to condom promotion and personal risk awareness.
Campaigns tackle particular groups such as long-distance truck drivers
or army personnel rather than men in general. They appeal to men’s
self-interest rather than challenging their power over women or
promoting mutuality between the sexes.
How can men be encouraged to rethink gendered
disparities? Challenges include:
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Targeting men in AIDS campaigns whilst still
recognising women’s need for support and resources.
-
Finding ways to talk with men about sexuality and
safety that link their self-interest to responsibility for their
wives, partners and children (including those as yet unborn).
-
Recognising that all sexually-active men may be at
risk, rather than the minority who appear promiscuous.
-
Persuading politicians and other men in the public
eye to acknowledge the issue and to promote men’s responsibility.
Contributor(s): Janet Bujra, Carolyn Baylies
Source(s):
See also Targeting men for a change: AIDS discourse and activism in
Africa Agenda 44, Durban by Janet Bujra (2000).
AIDS, Sexuality and Gender in Africa: Collective Strategies and
Struggles in Tanzania and Zambia Routledge, London by Janet Bujra and
Caroline Baylies (2000).
Further information:
Janet Bujra
Department of Peace Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1274 232 323
Fax: +44 (0)1274 305 340
Email: j.m.bujra@bradford.ac.uk
Department of Peace Studies,
University of Bradford, UK
Carolyn Baylies
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)113 233 4418
Fax: +44 (0)113 233 4415
Email: c.l.baylies@leeds.ac.uk
Department of
Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, UK
Other related links:
Search Eldis for
sources on gender |
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