Gendered Imbalances in AIDS-Related Burden of Care: Lessons from Lesotho

Abstract

This article reflects on the gendered burdens of AIDS-care within the family, and some of the difficulties in redressing them. It demonstrates the need for research-driven initiatives towards quantifying the gendered inequities in the burden of care, using Lesotho as case study. The article accentuates the gender aspects of AIDS burden of care, pointing to familiar problems: the difficulties of making women visible; prioritising their needs; and tackling the disadvantages and inequities which women systematically suffer. These problems underscore the importance of mainstreaming women in AIDS-related research in all ramifications. Such research will help to make women visible, highlight their needs, and bring into the frame of analysing shadowy realms of AIDS on households. While the findings of this study are essentially situated in the Lesotho context, their far-reaching implications for the Southern African region and indeed the African continent are adequately highlighted.