‘As a woman I cannot just leave the house’: gendered spaces and HIV vulnerability in marriages in Kenya

Abstract

This article analyses how spaces are implicated in extramarital sex and HIV transmission in marriage. Drawing on the experiences and practices of married women and men in Kenya, we demonstrate how intersectionality is expressed through the social organization of space to shape particular patterns of femininity and masculinity and enable, mostly, men’s infidelity and the possibility of the HIV risk. HIV mitigation policies focus mostly on altering individual-level behaviours but we argue that the invisibility of space in the sociology of gender, and in gender and HIV research, limits our analysis of the production and organization of extramarital sex as a key pathway to HIV infection in marriage. Therefore, our understanding of the gendered dimensions of HIV transmission in marriage may be improved by considering the socio-spatial structures within which marital infidelity occurs and move public health HIV interventions beyond individual-level interventions.

Keywords:

• Gender
• space
• intersectionality
• extramarital sex
• HIV
• Kenya

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was partially supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

Notes on contributors

Roseanne Njiru is a lecturer in the department of Social sciences and development studies at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya. Her research focuses on gender, sexualities, HIV, forced migration and human rights. She has authored and co-authored a book, book chapters and journal articles on these topics.

Bandana Purkayastha is a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut, USA. She has published several books, peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters on race/gender/class, transnationalism, peace and human rights. She serves in many leadership positions within professional organizations, and is the American Sociological Association’s representative to the International Sociological Association (2014–2018).

Notes

1. That is, an imperialist representation of African sexualities, homogenization of experiences and victimization of women, superficial analysis of masculinity in HIV transmission, and an imperial discourse on ‘harmful’ patriarchal cultural practices.

2. We also spoke to local, national, and international AIDS NGO staff (including religious organizations) and government health managers though they are not the focus of this paper.