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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Candace Webb, BS, CHES, Department of Community & Family Health, University of South Florida College of Public Health, 3111 E. Fletcher Avenue, 2nd Floor, Room 227, Tampa, FL 33612, 8135418162, cwebb@hsc.usf.edu, Marilyn Myerson, PhD, Department of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, FAO, Tampa, FL 33620, and Ellen Daley, PhD, Community and Family Health, University of South Florida College of Public Health, 13201 Bruce B Downs Blvd MDC 56, Tampa, FL 33612.

The continuing disproportionate impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on women and girls magnifies the crisis in the human condition, encapsulating the moral, political, socio-cultural, and philosophical problems facing the world today. The epidemiologic trend of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic has mirrored the womanization of poverty in the U.S., with a disproportionate burden of HIV-related morbidity and mortality occurring among women of color. The U.S. public health community is slowly, but increasingly, responding to the critical questions that have been raised by women-of-color feminist scholars about the delayed and inappropriate response to the womanization of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. And, subsequently, HIV interventions for women are increasingly based on an increased understanding of the linkages between gender, ‘race,' ethnicity, class and health.

Since research often is the blueprint for action, it is imperative to critique the methodology and theoretical frameworks that have been used by public health researchers in addressing the womanization of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. Through an historical and contemporary analysis of the methodology in which public health researchers have conceptualized the womanization of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic, an examination of the societal, cultural and institutional forces that have structured what has been researched in this domain will be presented. Results from this research will illuminate the key underlying assumptions that have guided public health research and will explore the potential contributions of feminist, black feminist, and mujerista feminist perspectives to current and future public health research and practice in response to the womanization of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Articulate the key underlying assumptions that have guided public health research on U.S. women and HIV/AIDS.
• Discuss the societal, cultural and institutional forces that have structured the HIV/AIDS research enterprise on women in the U.S.
• Recognize the importance of a feminist, black feminist and mujerista feminist critique of the methodology and theoretical frameworks that have been used by public health researchers to address the womanization of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Keywords: Women and HIV/AIDS, Research Agenda

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered