AIDS, gender and behavior change: Women's responses to the pandemic in urban Senegal

The findings presented here are the result of an eight month study conducted in Kaolack, Senegal's third largest town. This study looks at women's responses to the threat of AIDS in a predominantly Muslim and polygamous West African society that legalized prostitution in 1969. Thus, it examines the influence of the cultural environment on Senegalese women's willingness and ability to negotiate safe sex in an arena in which they traditionally have had little power. To this end, I employed quantitative and qualitative research methods to assess the AIDS knowledge and behaviors of 68 prostitute and 32 non-prostitute women. As an evaluation of an AIDS campaign targeted at prostitutes in Kaolack, the study compares the responses of campaign participants to those of women who were not part of this or any other education campaign. Informal and formal interviews with both groups of women yielded information about the demographics of the study sample as well as their sexual activities and perception of HIV risk. These data, coupled with participant observation in various settings, shed light on the factors affecting women's willingness and ability to control sexual activities as wives, girlfriends and prostitutes. The main finding of the study is that prostitutes targeted by the AIDS education campaign almost always enforce clients' condom use. This and other evidence testifies to the two-year program's significant success at impeding HIV transmission between prostitutes and their clients. However, in their roles as girlfriends, prostitutes do not always require their partners to wear condoms. Similarly, non-prostitute women are reluctant to discuss condoms with their partners. Like the prostitutes, they do not want to risk losing their husbands by implying one of them might be HIV positive. This dilemma reflects the economic and social dependence of Senegalese women on men and the compromises they make to retain long-term relationships that provide them with economic and social security. It points to the need for a program targeted at men that integrates the effective and culturally appropriate characteristics of the Kaolack AIDS campaign.