Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender

Nyokabi Kamau

Description

The current HIV and AIDS regime has opened up unknown vistas in intellectual pursuits and knowledge creation. One such newly opened up area of research is studying HIV and AIDS in relation to gender issues. However, owing to the devastating nature of the epidemic, most studies tend to focus on women merely as an "at risk" population leaving aside the wider sociological dimensions that pertain to women's sexuality in general, issues of AIDS related stigma and discrimination and how it impacts on women's careers as economic contributors to society. The uniqueness of the present study lies in the fact that it embodies the author's triangulated research into the tripartite dimensions of HIV and AIDS, women's sexuality, and gender-sociology, all against the backdrop of analysing actual experiences of career women in Kenyan universities.

Sujets

• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité
• Sociology

Informations

• Publié par: Zapf Chancery Publishers Africa Ltd.
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789966040558
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

RESEARCHING AIDS, SEXUALITY AND GENDER

Zapf Chancery Policy on Peer-Reviewing

All scholarly and academic works published by Zapf Chancery are peer-reviewed by at least two scholars in the field to which the work belongs. The purpose of peer reviewing is to get a second opinion from the community of scholarship to which the author belongs and thus add value to the work. All peer-reviewing is “blind-reviewing,” that is, the reviewer does not get to know the author, nor does the author get to know the reviewer.

Peer-reviewing is done with the help of a specially designed instrument awarding numerical score on originality (40%), quality and currency of the sources cited (20%), presentation (30%), and language & Style (10%). For a work to be published a minimum cumulative score of 60 per cent on the British grading scale is required. Works falling below this score are referred back to authors for improvement and further reviewing until the desired score can be obtained.

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Zapf Chancery Peer Reviewers (among others subject specific)

Prof. Joseph Galgalo, PhD (Cantab.), Vice Chancellor and Associate Professor of Theology, St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya; Prof. Esther Mombo, PhD, DD (HC), Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) and Associate Professor of Church History and Gender Theology, St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya; Rev. CB Peter, PhD (Cand), Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Theology, St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya; Prof. Chris L. Wanjala, Professor of Literature, University of Nairobi, Kenya; Dr. Godwin Siundu, PhD, Senior Lecturer in English and Literature, University of Nairobi, Kenya; Mr. Enoch Harun Opuka, BEd, MPhil, Development Education Pratitioner; Dr John Blevins, ThD, Associate Professor of Research, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta Georgia, USA; Prof. M. J. Kelly, Zambia

Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender Case Studies of Women in Kenyan Universities

SECOND REVISED EDITION

Prof. Nyokabi Kamau MA, MPhil, PhD

Zapf Chancery Limuru,Kenya

First published 2009 Revised edition 2013

Copyright © Nyokabi Kamau 2013

All rights reserved.

Cover concept and design Ediprint Communications

Design and typesetting Ediprint Communications P.O. Box 1207-00902, Kikuyu Email: [e-mail]

Set in Book Antiqua 11 on 13.5

Printed in Kenya by Kijabe Printing Press P.O. Box 40 Kijabe

Published by

Zapf Chancery Publishers Africa Ltd. c/o St. Paul’s University, P.O. Private Bag, Limuru - 00217, Kenya. Email: [e-mail] Website: www.zapfchancery.org Mobile: [phone]

ISBN: 978-9966-040-29-9

This book has been printed on fully recyclable, environment-friendly paper.

To my late grandmother, Nyokabi wa Waiganjo, for all her love and strong belief in my abilities ever since I was a small girl. May she rest in eternal peace.

Contents

Foreword Preface to the Second Revised Edition Acknowledgements Abbreviations and Acronyms

1 Background and Setting the Scene

2 The Situation of Women in Kenya: Framing the Context

3 Methodology and Research Design

4 Researching a Sensitive Topic: Ethical Issues and Other Challenges

ix xvii xxi xxiii

1

21

37

73

5 The Feminist Perspectives and Concepts Used in this Study 99

6 The Status of Women in the Sampled Universities

125

7 Women’s Experiences with HIV and AIDS: ‘Back into the Personal’ 145

8 ‘Maybe Next Year’: Impact and Responses to HIV and AIDS in Weruini and Holy Ghost Universities

9 Sexuality, Silence and Stigma

165

195

10 Summary, Conclusion and Suggestions for Good Practice 215

Appendices Appendix 1: Categories of Kenyan Universities Appendix 2: Researching a Sensitive Topic – Some Field Guidelines

243 243

245

viii

Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender

Appendix 3: Introduction letter to the Vice Chancellor of HG University

247

Appendix 4: Introduction Letter for the Focused Interview 248

Appendix 5: Introduction Information to the Women

Appendix 6: A Guide to the Conversational Interviews with Women Staff

Appendix 7: Guide to Focused Interviews

Appendix 8: An Example of a Transcribed Conversational Interview

Glossary

References

Index

249

250

252

254

261

263

295

Foreword

AIDS and People

Thereal,unspeakabletragedyoftheAIDSepidemicisthedestruction of people through the infection, illness or death of individuals. We must never overlook all that is going on at this individual, personal level. Behind all the mind-boggling AIDS statistics are men, women and children, experiencing a heartbreaking mixture of fear and anxiety, bodily pain and physical disability, isolation and rejection, loneliness and depression, anger and guilt, stigma and self-accusation. No matter how much we see on television or read in newspapers about HIV or AIDS, we must never forget the individual human beings who are affected. It is their personal situation that we want to remedy. It is their tragic situation that impels us to do what we can to understand the epidemic, reduce its transmission, and lessen its numerous impacts. The evidence of this very powerful book is that senior highly educated women academics experience these impacts just as other people do. Their educational accomplishments and their generally high social status do not protect them. Indeed, if anything, they aggravate the situation for them. They suffer greatly from the epidemic. They experience its many negative effects. They feel powerless in relation to it. They are at a loss as to where they should turn, given the silence and effective denials within which the epidemic continues to be enshrouded, in university circles as much as (if not more than) elsewhere.

Women and AIDS in Universities

Throughout this book, Prof. Kamau presents us with what senior university women have to say on the double tragedy that HIV and AIDS represent in their lives: the failure of their institutions to give