HIV responses should challenge

HIV responses should challenge the power relations and division of labour between
women/girls and men/boys and promote gender equality at home, at work, in the legal,
economic and political arenas, and throughout society at large. Interventions should engage
men and boys—both to reduce women and girls’ vulnerability to HIV and to minimize
the harmful effects that societal norms about masculinity and gender often have on men
and boys themselves.88 Structural measures such as national and regional policy reform
should address the norms and factors that increase demand for paid sex, including labour
migration, mobility, and the separation of families for extended periods of time. Workplace
HIV education programmes have an important role to play in redefining gender norms
and reducing the demand for sex work. Evidence indicates that such programmes can be
successful. In Thailand, for instance, broad-based efforts to alter social norms and male
behaviours led to a significant reduction in the sexual initiation of young men through
paid sex, helping bring about a sharp decline in the rate of new HIV infections