AEGiS-14IAC: The role of unequal relationships of power in shaping women's experiences of STI symptoms and risk for HIV: Findings from a qualitative study in rural India.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

The role of unequal relationships of power in shaping women's experiences of STI symptoms and risk for HIV: Findings from a qualitative study in rural India.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. MoOrE1114)

Amin AN, Bentley M
Center for Health and Gender Equity, Takoma Park, United States

BACKGROUND: The HIV epidemic has focused attention on the role of gender inequality as a critical factor in making women disproportionately vulnerable to the infection, and the need to control sexually transmitted infections (STI). Efforts to prevent HIV and control STI depend on women's perception of morbidity and subsequent health-seeking behaviors. This paper examines how gender inequalities manifest in everyday lives of women to influence their perceptions of morbidity and health-seeking behaviors for symptoms of STI.

METHODS: The data for this paper are obtained from 3 villages in Gujarat, India through focus group discussions with traditional birth attendants, and in-depth interviews with 18 women reporting current symptoms of STI. Sampling was purposive, and women were selected from lists of women participating in savings and loans groups operated by the collaborating NGO.

RESULTS: Women describe how they prioritize older male household members' health, and fulfill their work responsibilities despite their pain or discomfort. They describe pressures to remain with the husband, and produce children within 2 years of marriage. Women in relationships characterized by violence state that they did not reveal their gynecological symptoms. Whereas women in relationships characterized by better marital communication, describe strategies to refuse sex in relation to their symptoms. Women also express anxiety and helplessness with their situation in context of seeking treatment.

CONCLUSION: We conclude that gender inequalities, manifested through fertility, marriage, work norms, violence in marital relationships and poor psychological well-being, have resulted in rural Indian women accepting high thresholds of suffering, and not seeking treatment for their symptoms. We recommended that STI/HIV prevention efforts need to be a part of a larger process of empowering women in which there is a discussion of reproductive, sexual and health rights.

Keywords: AEGIS, HIV Infections, HIV Seropositivity, Socioeconomic Factors, Power (Psychology), Qualitative Research, Safe Sex, Marriage, Morbidity, Focus Groups, Interviews, Sex, India, Human, Female, Child, Male, diagnosis

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MoOrE1114