Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Beoku-Betts, Josephine

Abstract

Although Black women appear to be more at risk for HIV/AIDS than other women in the U.S., there is little information from positive Black women about positive Black women's prevention perspectives, the failure of the prevention models, and their perspectives on effective prevention measures. Black women with HIV/AIDS are configured primarily as victims, poor, sexually deviant, or inferior moms who pass disease to their children. Research helps to reinforce these misconceptions by primarily examining HIV related behaviors outside of a race, class, and gendered framework. Since the perspective of HIV positive Black women are not addressed comprehensively in the design of prevention programs, the eradication of HIV among African American women has not been effective. This research investigates positive Black women's perspectives and concerns on effective HIV prevention informed by their lived experience and situated knowledge. Theories of intersectionality of race, class, gender and stigma, and reciprocal empowerment inform this study. Study results reveal that the threat of being associated with factors of HIV/AIDS intersectional stigma can cut off African American women from their survival systems that help them subvert oppression. Factors that create and maintain these systems are experiences of communal connections, familial relations, and social respect; and are privileged in the HIV prevention decision making process of study participants. Most HIV education, care, and treatment is obtained in public institutions, thus many women are hesitant to seek assistance. Consequently, intersectional stigmas obstruct HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment for African American women. I reframe HIV/AIDS in order to subvert the stigma and discrimination associated with the virus that leaves many Black women cut off from their base. Methodologically, the study is qualitative and situated within Black women's narrative analysis for the systematic examination of individual experience and meaning. I utilize in-depth interviews, participant observation, and some additional ethnographic data. The fieldwork was carried out over several months with the Comprehensive Family AIDS Program in Florida. Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with HIV positive African American women interviewing them on their position of what constitutes relevant and applicable HIV/AIDS prevention.

Extent

348 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FA00000987

Format

pdf

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