Gender relations, sexual communication and the female condom

An exploratory multi-site study supported by the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS was conducted in Costa Rica, Indonesia, Mexico and Senegal to examine the extent to which women's capacity to negotiate safer sex might be enhanced by the introduction of the female condom. Data were first collected on prevailing gender relations, sexual communication and negotiation. This was followed by the distribution of the female condom and a locally designed intervention devised to develop women's knowledge and confidence in relation to their bodies, health and sexuality. In each of the four research sites, two groups of women were involved: one consisted of women engaged in sex work, the other of women from a range of backgrounds which varied across the sites. The introduction of the female condom was particularly successful in enhancing sexual communication between sex workers and clients, in couples where the man was already supportive of family planning, in a context where men were reassured that acceptance was high among peers, where the male condom was already in use but unpopular, and where the female condom was able to be eroticized and introduced into sex play.