Gender Equity/Empowerment

Gender inequities harm both women and men, and drive the HIV epidemic in complex ways.  Cultural expectations may work to drive men into multiple partnerships, while others limit education and economic opportunities for women and girls that diminish their power in relationships with men to negotiate safe sex.  But the fact that gender attributes are socially constructed means that they are also amenable to change in ways that can make a society more just and equitable.

Pangaea is working on a number of levels to promote gender equity and women’s empowerment.  Representative current projects include:

SHAZ! in Zimbabwe -- SHAZ! is a research intervention addressing economic livelihoods, life skills, gender inequities and linkages to HIV/SRH care focused on improving health outcomes among young women and girls.

Gender Equity and AIDS - Mobilizing combined HIV, Sexual & Reproductive Health, and Maternal Child Health civil society coalitions to advocate for increased funding and political commitment at the Heads of Government level on the HIV and women’s health Millennium Development Goals. 

Research on ‘women’s empowerment’ and ‘work with men for gender equality:’ This paper researches two parallel trends to empower women and work with men for gender equity, and makes suggestions for how to capitalize on the synergies that come from bolstering each position with the strengths of the other.