ABSTRACT
Acquired immune Deficiency Syndrome prevention programs for adolescent women and girls, in school, while increasingly common in developed countries, are still extremely rare in the developing world. The need for such programs is critical, though given the very early school drop-out rates of many girls in developing countries, school-based programs alone are not enough. Adolescent women, like everyone else, need to be given information that offers them choices and is based on an understanding of their sexual behavior. In an ideal world, mutually faithful monogamy would allow women to protect themselves and have healthy children, but this is not the reality of relationships for most of the world’s population. Prostitution has existed in every society for which there are written records and continues to exist as a result of sexual double standards that limit women’s economic options and means of sexual expression.
