title: The innovative and collective capacity of low-income East African women in the era of HIV/AIDS: contesting western notions of African Women.
abstract: Historically, African women have been viewed through a colonizing and Eurocentric lens emphasizing poverty, oppression, and suffering. A postcolonial, feminist approach to our two qualitative studies with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women in Malawi and Kenya led us to depart from this discourse, highlighting women's capacity. Through this article, not only is a forum created for African women's voices to be heard as subaltern knowledge leading to transformational change, but also health care providers are made aware, through women's words, of how they might capitalize on grassroots women's movements, particularly in resource-poor communities, to implement effective HIV prevention and treatment strategies.
authors: College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. mkandawi@uwm.edu
authors: Lucy
authors: L
authors: Mkandawire-Valhmu
authors: Peninnah
authors: P
authors: Kako
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Kibicho
authors: Patricia E
authors: PE
authors: Stevens
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007630:Kenya; D008295:Malawi; D008875:Middle Aged; D011204:Poverty Areas; D036301:Qualitative Research; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014933:Women's Rights; D055815:Young Adult