Narratives, culture and sexual health: personal life experiences of Salvadorean and Chilean women living in Melbourne, Australia

This article examines narratives about culture, gender, identity and sexual health amongst Chilean and Salvadorean women living in Melbourne, Australi a. We compare women's narratives about gender roles in their home country t o make sense of their experiences of migration, the tensions that arise in renegotiating their gender identities and roles in a new country and the wa ys these changes are experienced in terms of sexual health and well being. In comparing these past and present narratives of Chilean and Salvadorean b orn women, we raise a number of questions about the assumptions underpinnin g many of the sexual health promotion and STD prevention programmes targete d at women in migrant communities in Australia. Many of these programmes ha ve targeted specific 'language groups or 'geographical regions' with little attention paid to variations of cultural or socio-economic contexts within people's home countries or the specific ways in which these impact on gend er roles. Additionally, very few sexual health policies and strategies in A ustralia take into account the impact of the 'migration and settlement proc ess' and the ways these experiences influence cultural and gender identity of migrants in Australia. We propose that there is a need to build effectiv e and flexible sexual health promotion and STDs, including HIV/AIDS, preven tion strategies that build upon a dual strategy which includes men and wome n.