La Strada Documentation Center

Sex Work and Women's Movements

Document number
2792
Date
2011
Title
Sex Work and Women's Movements
Author/publisher
SVATI P. SHAH, Ph.D.
Availability
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Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Women's rights; Women; Control and regulation of prostitution, Protection, Punishable forms of prostitution, Prostitution; Sex work; Clients, Abolitionism; New Abolitionism; Prohibitionism; Regulationism,
Summary
The paper begins by describing the history of the relationship between these two movements, and takes U.S.A. and India as its examples. The paper discusses the history of women's movements and sex workers' movements, and where and how they intersected, or not. It goes on to discuss the contemporary context, including the status of alliances and dialogue between the two movements, the ways that HIV/AIDS have structured this relationship, and the question of agency. Svati P. Shah is an Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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