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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Shonali Choudhury-Southard, Community Helath Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health, 785 Weyburn Terrace, Apt. C37, Los Angeles, CA 90024, 310-623-0278, shonali@ucla.edu

Issues: In urban Mexico, female sex workers (FSWs) are a disenfranchised subpopulation whose relative powerlessness makes them susceptible to HIV infection. The sociocultural environment places poor women in jeopardy, which increases the probability that they will engage in commercial sex, putting them at risk for HIV infection. The power players that impact the lives of FSWs limit their ability to make safer sex choices after they entered the profession.

Description: This project examines the role of traditional gender hierarchies and the role of Catholic morality in the construction of the FSW's body and sexuality. It also explores the interplay between the construction of the body and the social vulnerabilities of FSWs in their susceptibility to HIV infection.

Lessons Learned: The sociocultural structures that dictate male female subordination are the root of the vulnerabilities of women. Gender hierarchies and Catholic construction of the shameful female body legitimizes male domination and lewd behavior while chastising expressions of female control over women's sexuality. Sustainable enfranchisement requires reconceptualization of the female body. This reconceptualization should include steps to challenge the ideologies of those institutions that constructed the vulnerable female.

Recommendations: Intervention programs to reduce HIV transmission should be developed with an understanding of the vulnerabilities FSWs experience. Programs should empower women so that they can have more agency to make decisions about safer sex practices while surviving in the system that oppresses them. Programs should directly address the power disparities created by traditional gender hierarchies and Catholicism by making women's empowerment a central goal.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, participants will be able to

• Identify the power players in Mexican society that create inequities for poor women
• Identify how social vulnerabilities contribute to FSWs susceptibility to HIV infection
• Analyze the ways power disparities prevent FSWs from engaging in safer sex behaviors
• Recognize that empowerment is a central issue in creating effective HIV prevention programs for FSWs

Keywords: Sex Workers, HIV/AIDS

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered