Women, Poverty, and the Epidemic in China: Case Studies on Rural People Living with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Based on in-depth interviews with 110 People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), this qualitative study is a preliminary endeavor to delineate the socio-cultural scripts of rural PLWHA in China including their illness experience, everyday lives, and strategies of coping with stigma, poverty, and social barriers. This study documents the new wave of the “feminization of HIV/AIDS” in China. There is a gender difference of infection routes. Women were infected through heterosexual contact much more frequently than men. This study also discusses power struggles and gender asymmetries between rural couples living with HIV/AIDS, especially on the issues of “disclosure of the illness” and “condom negotiation.” Even when the disease has changed the family structure and women become the main financial supporters, gender inequality within a family is not changed in that women remain not the main decision makers and continue to suffer most from poverty. In conclusion, this article locates women's HIV-related experience within the social ecology of HIV/AIDS, and explores how gender inequality intersects with traditional customs and ethics, economic and political policy, medical system, and patriarchal values to heighten women's vulnerability to both the illness and poverty.