Correcting gender inequalities is central to controlling HIV/AIDS.

Although HIV/AIDS is a global epidemic, the majority of people living with HIV/AIDS are in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a leading cause of death in that region (1) and a serious public health problem, with southern Africa being the most affected. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only part of the world where HIV prevalence and AIDS deaths are higher for women than for men. The gender dimension is therefore vital to understanding how HIV is spread: the concept facilitates an analysis of how men’s and women’s roles increase vulnerability to the disease (2). In every society, males and females — who by nature are biologically different — are expected to behave in prescribed ways. In some cultures in southern Africa, men are expected to have multiple partners, while women are expected to be monogamous; the age of marriage is often lower for females than for males, and men are expected to have younger sexual partners. Common law and customary laws reinforce these expectations. Most harmful sexual practices have their origin in patriarchal societies that promote the superiority of men over women; gender-insensitive and genderbiased laws are passed in parliaments, which are usually male dominated. In a study on human rights and gender issues in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, it was observed that, while these countries have acceded to the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, there was evidence of common and customary laws that encourage gender discrimination. Few of these countries have applied domestically the international conventions to which they agreed, and their laws keep women subservient to men and thus put them at increased risk Correcting gender inequalities is central to controlling HIV/AIDS Olive Shisana1 & Alicia Davids1