Day 7: World AIDS Day

Today is day 7 in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign and World AIDS Day.  In this post you will find information supporting the need to combat HIV and AIDS from a gender perspective.

Of the 39.5 million people living with HIV in the world today, almost half are women, up from 41% in 1997. Often, rates of infection in women and girls are increasing at a much faster level than men. In many places in the world, women, especially young women and girls can be particularly vulnerable to HIV and AIDS due to unequal power relationships caused by social, cultural and economic factors as well as violence, lack of information, limited access to treatment and other unique challenges.

Violence against women not only increases women’s vulnerability to HIV, it also presents a significant obstacle to accessing care, treatment and support for HIV positive women.

The lack of access to HIV-related information and treatment is highlighted as an additional challenge facing many women around the world. It has recently been reported that globally, only nine percent of pregnant women have access to ART to prevent mother to child transmission.

And in many societies, the burden of care for sick or orphaned family members most often falls on women and girls without sufficient social support, limiting their education and employment opportunities.

Why is leadership important from a woman’s perspective?
Despite these obstacles, women are leading the way for change. They are leaders in civil society organizations and networks of people living with HIV, in local communities and international politics. Women are speaking out and calling on leaders at every level to fulfill the promises they have made – for this generation and for the future.

Some of the key promises that women are demanding leaders to keep are:

• Achieving universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services by 2010 to reduce the spread of HIV, maternal mortality and morbidity and eliminate the disproportionate burden on women’s lives and health or other adverse outcomes of unprotected sex.
• Strengthening health and legal sectors responses to gender-based violence, stigma and discrimination against all persons and make ending all forms of violence against women and girls a central aspect of all bilateral and multilateral strategies including, but not limited to, HIV programmes.
• Supporting universal access to comprehensive sexuality education for all women and youth.
• Ensuring equitable access to productive resources and secure women’s property and inheritance rights.

To learn more about women and HIV/AIDS, please visit the links below:

Global Coalition on Women and AIDS
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
The Body: Women and HIV/AIDS
ACT to End HIV and Violence against Women Toolkit