The Control of Nigerian Women Over Their Sexuality in an Era of HIV/AIDS: A Study of Women in Edo State in Nigeria

HIV/AIDS remains the world's most menacing disease of the 20th and 21st century. Two-thirds of an estimated 40.3 affected people world-wide live in sub-Saharan Africa and 77% of these are women. In Nigeria, 57% of people living with HIV/AIDS are, according to a 2005 estimate, women. The increasing vulnerability of women/girls to HIV/AIDS has been attributed to many factors. Among these, women's control over their sexuality has been seriously implicated. Unfortunately however, very little attention has been given to this area both in the fight against the spread of HIV and as an academic inquiry. The study examines the extent to which Nigerian women in Edo state have control over their sexuality as a means of reducing their vulnerability to HIV and curbing the spread of the pandemic. Most importantly, the study examines the extent to which conclusions from two previous similar investigations in the South-West of Nigeria can be generalized. The study shows that most Edo women have a considerable level of control over their sexuality in their homes. The conditions under which such control is exercised as well as the factors that predispose the exercise of such control are discussed. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]