"Women, Poverty, and AIDS" Assignment

For this assignment, you will answer a few questions about "Women, Poverty, and AIDS" by Paul Farmer. The article focuses on the concept of "structural violence" and "agency." In brief, structural violence is harm/violence done to people that occurs through our social structures. A social structure is any patterned social arrangement. Many take the form of social identities and institutions. Examples include: gender, economic class, race, sexual orientation, religion, and education. Agency is the human capacity to act. I discuss both of these in more detail in this video below, so please watch it if you haven’t already.

STEP 1: Read and Watch

Watch, "Structural Violence and Agency" (5 min) if you haven't already.

Read "Women, Poverty, and AIDS" by Paul Farmer. Notes: This reading references physical and sexual abuse. If this is not something you can read, please get in touch. Second, the reading is long, and parts have a lot of academic wording. Read the highlighted parts, and skim the rest. Use the assignment question to focus your reading.

STEP 2: Write your Answers

Please answer each question in paragraph form. (Multiple sentences for each.)

1. Choose one woman’s story: Darlene, Guylene, or Lata. Describe some of the cultural, economic, and political factors that contributed to that specific woman’s experience with HIV/AIDS.
2. Farmer argues that structural violence is the underlying common cause for all of these women. Explain in your own words what that means.
3. Please share something else that you thought was interesting from the reading OR share a connection you noticed between the reading and a previous topic we have discussed.

STEP 3: Submit your Answers

Submit your answers by clicking the blue, "Take The Quiz" button below and copying your answers into the box. Although I am using the "quiz" feature for this, it is not a quiz. This is just an assignment. Do your best, but I'm not grading you on getting the right answer; you will be graded based on your sincere attempt to answer the questions and showing that you have read/watched the information, even if you didn't understand all of it.

Please get in touch if you have any issues submitting your answers. 

STEP 4: Check Answers

After you submit your answers, click on Attempt 1 in your attempt history. You should then be able to see the correct answers to the questions. This information is meant to help you affirm that you were on the right track in understanding the information or, if not, fill gaps in your understanding. You will only be able to see the answers once, so take any notes that you want to.