The dominant HIV discourse has identified poverty, lack of education and lack of gender
power as primary sites for women's vulnerability. This presents women as a homogenous
population. This study focuses on Professional and Entrepreneurial Women (PEW) who
have at least a post-secondary education and are professionally employed and/or engaged
in medium skilled entrepreneurial activities. The study suggests that PEW are women
who have an education, well-paying jobs by local standards, and power. Yet their rates of
HIV infection are higher than women who are uneducated and poor. An intersectional
postcolonial feminist approach is employed to examine: (a) the dominant discourse on
women's vulnerability, and how PEW view this discourse; (b) the discourse about PEW's
vulnerability to HIV that is articulated by PEW themselves; and (c) the place of PEW in
the dominant HIV discourse and prevention practices as articulated by participants.
Qualitative research methods were used, which comprised the analysis of 5 government
documents, 5 interviews with officials from TACAIDS and TAMWA, and 37 interviews
with PEW. The results of this study demonstrates that the dominant framing of
individuals in relation to HIV vulnerability fails to take into account the new positions
resulting from socio-economic changes, the resulting identities of both men and women,
and how these intersect with cultural norms to influence new avenues and forms of HIV
vulnerability. The vulnerability of PEW is associated with the intersection of their
positionalities and identities and those of their partners with socio-cultural norms and
socio-economic changes. Suggestions are made for transformative changes (i.e., change
in the premises of our understanding of HIV vulnerability, risks, and individual identities)
for effective HIV prevention interventions.