Conference Abstract

Feminist Model of HIV Prevention for Adolescent and Young Adult Women

Grace S. Chu, UCSF AIDS Health Project/AIDS and Substance Abuse Program
Jennifer A. McGaugh, Bay Area Young Positives

Introduction: The days of the stereotype of HIV being a gay, white male disease are over. The reality is that adolescent and young adult women are one of the fastest growing populations of new HIV infections. Prevention messages based on slogans and fear tactics cannot address the core issues of the mental health and developmental changes of adolescent and young adult women in a patriarchal society.

Need: Even though more prevention information is available to young women, HIV infection rates in this population are increasing dramatically. The whole approach to HIV prevention has to be examined and overhauled which means looking at women's oppression and how it relates to our overall well-being. The models of prevention then need to be recreated and disseminated.

Objectives: Participants will gain an understanding of the ineffectiveness of HIV prevention messages aimed at adolescent and young adult women. In addition to a brief didactic piece, presenters will foster a discussion about a variety of HIV prevention campaigns. The focus will be on the flaws of HIV prevention messages which may be effective temporarily, but often result in a backlash.

Participants will gain an understanding of why a feminist model for HIV prevention is necessary to address the issues of low self-esteem, unequal power dynamics and their consequences. In addition to a brief didactic piece, presenters will foster a discussion about psycho-social factors that influence the development of adolescent and young adult women in an oppressive society.

Participants will be given a model through which they will learn tools to adapt and reproduce for their own communities. This objective will be met by lecture which will include the presenters' personal findings and implications on the use of this model. Presenters will also use visual aids and provide written materials.

Summary: Grace Chu and Jennifer McGaugh work collectively with HIV infected and affected young women with harm reduction and peer based models. Through direct service and personal experience, they have gathered valuable information on why HIV prevention messages did not work for this population even though many of the young women could recite safer sex and HIV rhetoric.

© Copyright 1997-2005 by The Measurement Group LLC. All rights reserved.