Review

Optimism and pride

POSITIVELY WOMEN: LIVING WITH AIDS
Sue O’Sullivan & Kate Thomson (eds)
Sheba Feminist Press, 1992, £9.99

WORKING WITH WOMEN AND AIDS: MEDICAL, SOCIAL & COUNSELLING ISSUES
Judy Bury, Val Morrison & Sheena McLachlan (eds) Routledge, 1992

Any book about the experiences of women living and coping with HIV is urgently needed; our lack of awareness is alarming. These accounts do far more than raise our awareness, they give women with HIV a loud and courageous voice and create a vision encompassing all the essential aspects of the reality of living with HIV. Nobody could be left believing that HIV is something that only happens to other people.

The women’s stories are moving and honest - histories, hopes, fears, frustrations and the conspicuously common thread of invisibility. It is difficult not to be inspired by their strength in the face of society’s lack of understanding and compassion.

The authors, as women with HIV or AIDS, as workers, or as both, manage to share their emotive stories without being polemical, combining personal experiences and learning with practical and humane approaches to caring. There are no conclusions, but many intelligent and valid pointers to aid personal decision-making about the options in allopathic and holistic treatments, safer sex, drug use, pregnancy, childcare, housing, legal issues, counselling and support.

Refreshingly, these are not divorced from the broader social, economic and historical aspects of women’s lives. The ways women with HIV have been treated are not new or unique, they serve as a forceful reminder of the limits of freedom, choice and access to appropriate care, treatments, specific research and support.

For these women, who are statistically insignificant, largely invisible, and silenced by virtue of their gender, class or race and the stigma of a socially unacceptable condition, it comes as no surprise to hear of their problems in trying to gain non-judgemental and informed care. The authors urge readers to view women with HIV less myopically, not simply as containers for the virus. They argue that an understanding of the relevance of broader issues is a prerequisite to HIV status and women’s health in general being treated with sensitivity and respect. Only then will services that improve the overall quality of life be provided.

In the absence of any firmly established and provenly efficient services, I hope these books will give women the courage to say what they want, and to become the architects of the care that should be available to them.

Both books are highly recommended for their eloquent insight and recommendations for service provision. Moreover, they leave the reader with a sense of optimism and pride: against a backdrop of such hardship, women are able to unite, have control over their bodies, make choices and accomplish goals.