Since household income has been declining over time (and
proportionally fewer individuals earn more than twice the
poverty level), the silver lining of the 2008 economic crisis
might be that more Americans start seeing poverty for what it
is: not something anyone “deserves.” Indian immigrants to the US
face no official barriers to using reproductive technologies to
ensure the births of sons. In spite of all the gains we’ve made
in the past fifty years, in spite of greatly improved access to
education and employment, male privilege is still very much
alive and well. As men and women move closer to equality, the
traditional gender-inequality holdouts are positioning
themselves as the ones who will “make men, men again.” The Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS recently launched an action
plan that targets the AIDS pandemic where it is most
devastating: among women. A truly gender-based approach to women
and HIV/AIDS must approach women and girls both as persons
independent of their societal roles and in r