Contradictions in Discourse: Gender, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Although the first cases of AIDS in women were reported in 1981, in the United States, there was very little written about women and AIDS until the late 1980s. Prior to then, researchers paid scant attention to issues relating to women and HIV/AIDS. The year 1987 was particularly important in terms of public recognition of AIDS as a women’s health issue. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control produced its first published report on women and AIDS and a number of books and articles were published which drew attention to the need to address AIDS-related issues which affected women. In the main, these were concerned with providing women with information about AIDS and advice on prevention of HIV infection (for example, Kaplan, 1987; Norwood, 1987). However, a number of writers were also concerned to acknowledge the social and political context of AIDS prevention, diagnosis and treatment (for example, Patton and Kelly, 1987; Richardson, 1989).