Gender inequality and AIDS.

Gender inequalities in among other things education income property ownership and power are often cited as factors that fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic. One specific pathway through which inequalities can impact the spread of HIV/AIDS is transactional relationships where young/poor women receive gifts from older/wealthier boyfriends. Transactional relationships which imply concurrent relationships as opposed to serial monogamy are common in many parts of the world. Such relationships combined with the penetration of global consumer goods into poor countries imply that income inequalities between genders might exacerbate the epidemic. While this has been hypothesized testing it empirically requires data on both this specific inequality and HIV/AIDS. Over et al. examine the relationship between income inequality and AIDS at a cross-country level and Lin has examined this relationship for the United States at the state level. (excerpt)