Why are Women So Vulnerable to AIDS?
Researchers are exploring why women are so vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. And why they are four times more biologically susceptible to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. According to Dr. Quarraisha Abdool-Karim, the former director of South Africa s national AIDS control program, the imbalance of power between men and women and the perceived gender role of women are contributing factors to this excess vulnerability. In South Africa, where unemployment can be as high as 60 percent in some areas, a study of rural women by Abdool-Karim found that more than 70 percent were financially dependent on male partners. Some are forced to exchange sex for money or material favors, or to stay in risky relationships for economic survival. In these circumstances, a woman s ability to negotiate safer sex practices is limited. According to a survey conducted by the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women, more than two-thirds of the women interviewed in southern Africa said th
