Jill Beck
January 29, 1999

Women in the Time of AIDS by Gillian Paterson
112 pages
Published by Orbis Books, 1996

          As would be expected after reading the title, Women in the Time of AIDS
attempts to recognize issues of AIDS and HIV that affect women.  In order to do
this, Gillian Paterson employs a cross-cultural approach to explore ways in
which AIDS affects women throughout the world.  Through storytelling,
ethnography, and personal reflection, she works her way through Bangladesh,
Uganda, Argentina, Brazil, India, and Thailand.  Each chapter approaches a
different part of the world and the presentation of information revolves around
the author's experiences while traveling within that culture.  The book only
makes passing references to the biological aspects of the disease and is
therefore intended for readers interested in cultural, rather than scientific,
approaches to HIV. 
          Paterson clearly recognizes the need for information surrounding women and
AIDS and this book is an attempt at encouraging the production of that
information.  The strongly held stereotype of Europeans and North Americans
that AIDS is a male homosexual disease is challenged by the stories of women
throughout the world suffering from AIDS.  However, when reading the book, it
becomes easy to separate one's self from the experiences of people in these
less industrialized countries.  A strong theme throughout Women in the Time
of AIDS is the link between poverty and health in all of these countries.
Women are able to affect the health of their community most directly, and yet
they are not given the resources or information to effectively create that
change. 
          In her approach to the cultural issues surrounding AIDS, Paterson moves
towards acceptance, but also attempts to prove the superiority of Western
culture in dealing with illness and disease.  She recognized the complications
of challenging a disease that is transmitted by sexual contact in countries
where sex is taboo and also acknowledges the way women's roles in various
societies can affect the way they protect themselves against AIDS.  Many of her
stories are the result of efforts to work with women in various cultures to
help them contain the effects of AIDS.  However, Paterson's Western bias
results in other cultures often appearing savage and uncivilized because of
their inability to care for themselves effectively.  This approach may also be
an outcome of the short length of the book resulting in a briefness in
explanation for each of the countries.
          As Women in the Time of AIDS develops, the book begins to focus more
heavily on the conflicts and connections between Christianity and AIDS while
de-emphasizing women's roles in the epidemic.  The subordination of women and
sex taboos of Christianity continue to relate back to women's position in the
spread of the disease, however Paterson uses the last portion of her book to
dissect the response of the church in its methods of dealing with AIDS.  As a
result, she challenges Christian positions on sexuality and morality while
questioning the negative impact those views have had on the spread of AIDS.
          In her book, Women in the Time of AIDS, Gillian Paterson begins an
important discussion of the impact of AIDS on women throughout the world in a
variety of cultures.  Through her stories and experiences it quickly becomes
clear that the barriers of poverty and powerlessness will be difficult to
overcome in order to effectively control the AIDS epidemic in these countries.
The book is extremely useful in allowing for an understanding of how the AIDS
epidemic is affecting non-Western cultures.  Her argument, however, is clouded
by her approach.  By exploring both the role of women and Christianity in the
AIDS epidemic, the impact of her assertions are lessened because both topics
are much too broad to be explored in such a short book.  Her personal
experiences lend an important dimension to her arguments that are extremely
useful, but a more thorough approach to a concentrated topic would lead to a
stronger analysis.