Business Action Must Incorporate Women and Girls to Achieve Full Impact
Shana Ward Ryzowy, Program Manager
Integrating Gender into Workplace, Community and Advocacy Programs
Health of Women and Girls Critical to Productive Workforces and Vibrant Consumer Base
Specific Business Actions to Keep Women and Girls Healthy
Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Vice President, Knowledge, Evaluation and Performance
Leading by example: Business programs for women and girls
Business Intervenes to Keep Women and Girls Healthy
Women and girls are the new face of AIDS, comprising more than half of the 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. In the hardest hit regions of southern Africa, more than 60 perfent of adults living with HIV are female. Already more physiologically vulnerable to the disease, gender inequity makes women and girls even more susceptible to infection. Business is beginning to recognize this crisis, and many are stepping up to protect the lives of young women by providing them with increased economic and educational opportunities, by improving access to health services and information, and by making the workplace a safer place to work.
GBC's newest member tool offers guidance on how to design effective gender policies in the workplace.
» In Good Company: How Business Fights the Feminization of HIV/AIDS (PDF)
Highlights of GBC member actions in support of women and girls
Levi Strauss & Co.'s labor program for migrant women in China has supported critical HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention efforts for 740,000 women workers in 200 factories and 22 cities across China.
Johnson + Johnson's Women and Families initiative increases the ability of women living with HIV/AIDS and their families to obtain proper treatment via treatment preparedness knowledge, advocacy for improved HIV care and services, and development of income-generation skills.
» Johnson + Johnson: Supporting women and families across Sub-Saharan Africa
Boehringer Ingleheim's Viramune Donation Program supports the needs of HIV-positive, pregnant women in developing countries during delivery and seeks to decrease the risk of transmission of HIV to babies. It has provided more than one million doses of pMTCT drugs around the world to date.
» Boehringer Ingleheim: Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS)
In Angola, ExxonMobile's Educating Women and Girls Initiative seeks to remove the barriers that prevent girls from receiving an education, alleviating a critical risk factor in the transmission of HIV/AIDS.
» ExxonMobile: Supporting schools, training teachers and improving community facilities in Angola
Quick Facts on Women, Girls & HIV/AIDS
- Nearly half of all people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are female.
- In the hardest hit countries in southern Africa, over 60% of adults living with HIV are women, and young women aged 15-24 are three to four times more likely to be HIV positive than their male counterparts.
- Females represent 41 percent of the world’s labor force living with HIV and the percentage is even higher in developing economies and within the agricultural, manufacturing, apparel and footwear sectors.