Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS

Extract

Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS. By Michele Tracy Berger. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 248p. $32.50.

How do women who face the multiple stigmas associated with drug use, sex work, and HIV-positive status engage as political actors in the wider environment that shapes their lives? This question is at the heart of Workable Sisterhood. Michele Tracy Berger offers one of the first studies of the development of critical consciousness and political participation of women of color who are HIV positive. All of the women she interviewed for her study have also struggled with drug abuse and engaged in sex work, and all have found a way to translate their experiences into a range of political actions designed to empower themselves and other women who face similar challenges. These activities include contesting the stigma associated with HIV-positive status, working “face-to-face” with other HIV-positive women, designing events and cultural projects to educate the wider community about HIV and about those living with HIV and AIDS, and advocating for social and economic changes that would help improve the lives of HIV-positive people (p. 12).