Masculinity Matters: Men, Gender-Based violence and the AIDS Epidemic in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Gender has been a key category of enquiry into the AIDS pandemic for many years. Today, every major international authority involved in the response to AIDS recognises that a gendered approach is essential to success (UNAIDS 1999, 2000a; UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNIFEM 2004; UNAIDS and KIT 2005; UNDAW 2000; WHO 2003). Programmes to reduce gender inequalities are considered to be crucial to HIV prevention (see Carovano 1995; Gupta 1995; Jewkes, Levin and Penn-Kekana 2003, 132). So, there is a broad consensus that gender matters, but is it so clear that masculinity matters?