Other Publications
HIV/AIDs and Gender-based Violence: Who Has the Power?
A challenge for school management in South African schools
Gender-based violence directed towards girls and young women often finds lethal expression in the increasing rate of HIV / AIDS infection amongst this population. In this paper we suggest that the crucial distinction between power and force in relation to aggressive masculinity needs to be analysed and understood if preventative intervention is to stand any chance of success. Such understanding needs to underpin initiatives implemented through school management structures. Schools are part of the problem and must become part of the solution: they are often the site of gender-based violence but are also potential sites for transformation through behaviour and attitude change. Indeed, in noting the particular challenges faced by educators confronted by the enormous implications of the reality of HIV/AIDS today, Hubert J. Charles of UNESCO Maputo affirms our belief that "the school represents the best opportunity for developing an effective challenge to the AIDS pandemic among school age learners and youth" (6), and our recommendation that school-based programs must start with the involvement of school principals and head teachers. Our focus is on the management of schools as a "first step" in school-based approaches to looking at HIV/AIDS prevention. School principals and school management teams are responsible for establishing a climate of trust and confidentiality for teachers and learners whose lives are directly affected by HIV/AIDS, for providing leadership in relation to human resource policies and absenteeism related to HIV/AIDS and --central to the argument of this paper --responsible for managing a safe school.
In the paper we examine the ways in which various initiatives geared towards looking at a school-based approach to understanding issues of gender equity and gender-based violence are linked directly to HIV/AIDS prevention. In particular, we focus on the relation of aggressive masculinity to issues of power and force as a way to interrogate and destabilise the discourse within HIV/AIDS prevention which emphasises negotiation and communication skills aimed at improving decision-making and conflict resolution skills. We suggest that setting up a theoretical framework which spells out the ways in which sexual harassment and gender-based violence can be understood through an interrogation of the notions of power and force be seen as integral to the work of training Life Skills specialists working in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention.
Two interventions related to HIV / AIDS developed through the Canada South Africa Education Management Programme are described in the paper: the integration of gender and HIV / AIDS in the Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender Equity, and a workshop on Gender -based violence and HIV / AIDS within the School-based module on managing sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Both of these interventions are developed in partnership with the Gender Directorate of the National Department of Education and 3 provinces, Gauteng, Free State and Mpumalanga.
The paper concludes by linking work on aggressive masculinity within HIV/AIDS prevention to the training of education managers and youth leaders.