The crisis created by HIV/AIDS in health services, medical science and the everyday lives of families and communities is well known. Yet despite growing awareness, the pandemic continues; and research shows that the proportion of women among those newly infected is growing everywhere in the world. Young women now account for two-thirds of new infections among people between 15 and 24. What is becoming ever clearer is that where women's social, economic and cultural status is low, they are more likely to become infected with HIV and pass the virus on to others.

Vividly recounting the stories of women in many countries, this book shows how the AIDS crisis makes improving the status of women not only a matter of theology and ethics but of health and survival. That in turn challenges churches, which often justify and even collude with forces that subordinate women, to change attitudes and visions and to undertake creative new initiatives in their ministries of healing and hope.