Key Facts
Fact Sheets
HIV/AIDS and Women
- Women, especially younger ones, are biologically more susceptible to contracting HIV than men in a given sexual encounter. In addition, the low social status of women in the developing world magnifies their vulnerability to contracting HIV. (Piot and Pinstrup-Andersen, 2002. AIDS and Food Security, IFPRI).
- Driven by poverty and the desire for a better life, many women and girls find themselves using sex as a commodity in exchange for food, goods, services, money or other basic necessities. This leads to severe unequal prevalence rates in such places as South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where young women are three to six times more likely to be infected with HIV than young men. (UNAIDS, 2004. AIDS Epidemic Update).
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, women are considerably more likely—at least 1.2 times—to be infected with HIV than men. Young women aged 15-24 are 2.5 times more likely to be infected than their male peers. (UNAIDS, AIDS Epidemic Update 2003; 2004 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic)
- Upon the death of an HIV-infected spouse, women are often stigmatized and driven from the communities, losing all property and other assets, a condition which drives them further into poverty and vulnerability to contracting HIV. (IFPRI, 2005. Women: Still the Key to Food and Nutrition Security).
- Recent research shows that increased schooling can actually increase mortality among women, but not men, in societies where HIV is very prevalent. Where Lobola, or bride price, is the norm, the probability of marriage decreases among educated women when the cost of marriage increases. In turn, delaying marriage increases the risk of death due to HIV/AIDS. (Yamauchi, 2008. Marriage, Schooling, and Excess Mortality in Prime-Age Adults: Evidence from South Africa, IFPRI/RENEWAL).