Love, Money, and HIV Becoming a Modern African Woman in the Age of AIDS [Hardcover]

How do modern women in developing countries experience sexuality and love? Drawing on a rich array of interview, ethnographic, and survey data from her native country of Kenya, Sanyu A. Mojola examines how young African women, who suffer disproportionate rates of HIV infection compared to young African men, navigate their relationships, schooling, employment, and finances in the context of economic inequality and a devastating HIV epidemic. Writing from a unique outsider-insider perspective, Mojola argues that the entanglement of love, money, and the transformation of girls into consuming women lies at the heart of womens coming-of-age and health crises. At once engaging and compassionate, this text is an incisive analysis of gender, sexuality, and health in Africa.

Sanyu A. Mojolais Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

List of Illustrations
Preface

1. A Stubborn Disparity
2. Consuming Women, Modernity, and HIV Risk
3. Historical and Cultural Context
4. Love, Money, and HIV Prevention
5. School and the Production of Consuming Women
6. Gendered Economies and the Role of Ecology in HIV Risk
7. To Stem HIV in Africa, Prevent Transmission to Young Women

Epilogue: The Magic Bullet

Notes
Appendix
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Love, Money, and HIVoffers a compelling account of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Mojola advances a fascinating sociological understanding of the transmission of this disease and makes a forceful case that to stem the epidemic, public policy should focus on [young women], using a combination of biomedical, behavioral, social, and ecological approaches. The work humanizes the victims of the AIDS epidemic and explains why the current intervention strategies have not been effective at stopping the disease.
Christine Williams, Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin