Women caregivers and leaders in the second phase of HIV/AIDS

abstract

In the second phase of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, women have taken the lead in providing community-based care for growing numbers of AIDS-affected people. This briefing explores the role of woman-as-caregiver and how attempts to construe caregiving as a form of leadership are misleading and ultimately undermining to the progress of women. The author draws attention to the need for women's leadership in AIDS activist organisations to challenge gender role expectations and inequalities that are reproduced and reinforced through the mass conscription of women into the service of caregiving.

keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• gender
• home care
• Africa