Building international research partnerships to develop HIV programs for women of color in the context of social inequalities and human rights.

This article examines relationships among social inequality, drug use, and HIV risk for women of color in the United States and South Africa. In the first section, social and cultural factors that may place women of color at risk for drug use and exposure to HIV are identified. In the second section, lessons learned while developing HIV prevention research protocols for women of color in South Africa are presented and discussed. Experience suggests that to effectively address women's risks of drug use and AIDS requires specific theoretical models and methodological approaches that acknowledge the critical interface that may exist among social inequality, drug use, and AIDS risk for women worldwide. Successful HIV prevention and intervention programs for women of color worldwide also require international research partnerships that are based on mutual respect between partners and attention to the needs and priorities of the target populations.

"Kitchen cupboard drinking": a review of South African women's secretive alcohol addiction, treatment history, and barriers to accessing treatment.

How Black women are represented, conceptualized, and researched in the field of psychology has dramatic and far-reaching effects on arriving at an understanding of personality and psychopathology. This point becomes especially salient as researchers try to develop alternative strategies for researching gendered experiences and for generating meaningful information about African women's experiences of alcohol misuse. On the African continent, there is a paucity of research on Black women's access to alcohol treatment. Therefore, this review has implications for research and practice with the potential to stimulate future health disparities research affecting Black African women. The article focuses on a South African population and explores the importance of theorizing alcohol misuse and sex by discussing the history of alcohol misuse in South Africa, women and alcohol misuse in South Africa, and women's treatment history; interpreting women's experiences of treatment; and addressing recommendations for future research.