AIDS, Gender, and Economic Development

This collection of essays, authored by experts across a wide range of disciplines, provides a gendered analysis of the economic choices and structures that contribute to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the impact of the epidemic on economic and social outcomes. Topics covered include:

• gender norms, perceptions of risk, and risk-taking behavior among specific populations of women, including sex workers in Nicaragua, African immigrants in France, and university students and urban migrant workers in China
• malnutrition and poverty as precursors to HIV infection
• gendered institutions and access to treatment
• the invisible cost of caregiving.

An introductory essay briefly surveys the social science literature on the gendered nature of the epidemic and identifies key constructs of feminist economic theory that might be productively applied to understanding HIV/AIDS.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Feminist Economics.

Cecilia A. Conrad is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College and the Stedman-Sumner Professor of Economics at Pomona College. Her research focuses on the impact of race and gender on economic status. Professor Conrad is editor of The Review of Black Political Economy.

Cheryl Doss is a development economist who works on issues of gender, agriculture, and intrahousehold decision-making in Africa. Her current research focuses on women's access to assets and the gender-asset gap. She is Senior Lecturer in Economics and Global Affairs and Director of Graduate Studies for the MA program in International Relations at Yale University.