The gendered reconfiguration of low-income urban household space in response to AIDS: Perspectives from Botswana

摘要

The study focused on three main actors within low-income urban households in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. These were primary care givers, persons living with AIDS (PLWA) and AIDS orphans. The survey investigated the extent to which the traditional family system was coping with provisioning for its PLWA and AIDS orphans, the level to which the main actors reorganize household space in response to evolving demands, to cater for PLWA and AIDS needs, and the degree to which such spatial reorganization resonates with the gendered utilization of household space. Although the methodology of this case study was mainly participatory, it also relied on documented literature from archival sources and the Internet for its conceptual, theoretical and statistical information. The results suggest that the traditional family system is failing to cope with care provision for the PLWA and AIDS-orphaned children and that adjustments to their increasing presence within the households influence the gendered reconfiguring of household space. The traditional gendered utilization of space is thus being constantly negotiated in response to the requirements of HIV patients and those of HIV/AIDS-orphaned children. The proliferating female HIV/AIDS patient care giving and orphan children guardianship appear to be threatening the central and pivotal position of the father figure within the patriarchal household setting.