'Bring us the female condom': HIV intervention, gender and political empowerment in two South African communities

Abstract

The quotation which heads this paper encapsulates two important issues in AIDS research in South Africa: the one is substantive, the other methodological. The link between them is the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the country and the indication not only that women are more at risk of infection than men, but that, as in many other parts of the world, much of their vulnerability is gender based. ‘Bring us the female condom’ sums up the response of one particular group of black South African women to AIDS education. Their demand was a reflection of their relative domestic and gender empowerment - and also a high degree of political mobilization. However, their position is not necessarily shared by other black women. But the call for the female condom went further: it was a challenge to rethink our position as researchers and particularly to face the implications of commitment to a participatory model of community based intervention research