Women with HIV suffer double discrimination in the face of a job

MADRID, 7 (EUROPA PRESS)

The fact of being a woman today is discriminatory when it comes to getting a job, if that is added to have HIV/AIDS, the possibility of joining the labour market is more complicated, as they point out from society Spanish interdisciplinary of AIDS (Seisida), on the occasion of the international day of working women, which takes place this Thursday.

Is currently difficult to know exactly the number of women discriminated against HIV, given that, as explained to Europa Press the Manager of SEISIDA, the psychologist Mª José Fuster, usually “they hide their situation”, largely out of fear the reaction of others.

“The situation of women is generally unfavorable at work, in the field of HIV the situation becomes more serious because the woman has one greater level psychosocial vulnerability because it has more economic dependence, family responsibilities, burdens that already exist in women without HIV, and that makes it more vulnerable,” adds.

At work more than 24 percent of patients with HIV alleged discrimination, up 35 percent has abandoned work on occasion and up 28 percent has decided not to seek work or not submitted to a labour malaria promotion

“The problem of people living with HIV is not so much discrimination by third parties but that the patient is anticipated that discrimination to avoid situations uncomfortable”, explains. In this line, studies carried out by this expert, show that 80 percent of those interviewed with HIV had not communicated it in his work, the rest, at least 10 percent claimed some sort of discrimination.

In the case of women, Fuster warns that the “degree of avoidance is higher than in men” and, especially, in what refers to the world of work, in large part because “they suffer more anxiety, depression, more negative feelings than men, as well as avoidance situations;” “and feel asylum, without social network of friends and absolutely hidden after with his HIV status”.

“A table of SALVATION or A source of stress”

Was recently made public report 2011 service of legal advice of the Observatory of human rights of network community on the HIV/AIDS of the Spanish State (REDVIH) reflecting the legal consultation by labor problems that people living with HIV/AIDS carried out in 2011 have increased 2 percent over the previous year, passing presumably 26 percent to represent 28 percent of the total.

This expert recalls that for this group of patients in general work can become “a salvation table or a source of stress”. Although it is clear that it helps increase their quality of life, unable to speak of their pathology at work can be an emotional problem.

However, confirms that various studies have shown that people who have better quality of life are those who were working, but above all the are self-employed, “in contrast to the general population without HIV”, mainly because they can manage his time.

. Among the problems that increase this type of discrimination is the lack of knowledge by employers of the disease and the false myths. In this sense, the psychologist highlights that there are many entrepreneurs who have a perception that these patients are at low performance, and on the other hand, there are those who have social prejudice and fear to an of high absenteeism due to the illness.

The impact of physical changes and, in particular, of lipodystrophy is another of the factors that increase stigma situations in women, these are those who suffer from it to a greater extent. “If you are very serious has a very clear impact in terms of finding a job” and said, for this reason, “there are many depressed and distressed women has no prospects for the future”.

To avoid these situations, since SEISIDA recommend to intervene in at least three areas: firstly, actions for reducing social rejection, through awareness-raising activities to change the perception of HIV; empowering women with HIV so that they know to confront this stigma, enhancing their self-esteem, their skills and providing them with social support; and, finally, the discrimination that exists in the field of institutions.