Prostitution and

the Trafficking of Women

Picture courtesy of Piet den Blanken.
Web site: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ae4811/bordello/bord02..html

"do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies and minds are inseparable in this life, and when we allow our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. "

Rich, Adrienne. 1999. "Claiming an Education." In Kesselman et al. Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

Drunken prostitute in an oil-rig village, Amazone territory

Picture courtesy of Piet den Blanken. Web site: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ae4811/bordello/bordello.html

This site is dedicated to providing information about the industry of prostitution. Included in our web page is a brief history of prostitution, and information about modern day trafficking of women, and the steps being made to stop the trafficking of women. This site also contains links to related web sites including a prostitution advocacy group.

The History Of Prostitution

Timothy Gilfoyle writes about the history of prostitution in an article entitled "Prostitution (in US history) published in The Reader's Companion to American History. This article summarized the history of United States' prostitution. It began as a European import to North America. During the 1700s, due to the stationing of soldiers in New York and Boston these cities had the most prostitutes. After 1810, prostitution became both a political and social problem. Prostitution rose due to rapid urbanization, expanding male population, low female wages and discrimination against women.

During the 1800s, prostitution was divided into three subcultures. Five to ten percent of women made up the first subculture. Women in it for the $. The second subculture was a "sporting male" group encouraged to hire prostitutes. Brothels made up the third subculture. Hundreds of brothels could be found in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Donna J. Guy writes about the history of prostitution world-wide in her article entitled "Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful Daughters." Guy states that prostitution is linked to religious beliefs, family survival, and patriarchy authority. However, women chose prostitution to find independence, provide an income or control their own sexuality. Guy refers to "Feminizing Venereal Disease" by Spongberg where she links gender and disease. Physicians blamed venereal disease transmissions on prostitutes.

In Buenos Aires between 1875 and 1936 prostitution was medically supervised to monitor European prostitutes. However in neighboring Rio de Janeiro, populized by Afro-Brazilians, medically supervised prostitution was never approved.

In New York City and Chicago, prostitution zones were pushed into African-American neighborhoods. White women who dated non-white men were considered "mental defectives."

In the early 1900s, floods, famines and earthquakes led to family disaster in China and Japan. Girls preferred being sent to a brothel where they could at least fulfill some of her family's obligations. These obligations included family honor which in turn meant honor by men.

In 1899, there was a rise in Nairobian prostitution due to a famine among farmers. Women went to care and provide entertainment for the men. The women would then send money home to their families.

Gilfoyle, Timothy J. 1991. "Prostitution (in US history)." The Reader's Companion to American History. Edition 1991 p875 (3).

Guy, Donna J. 1998. "Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful Daughters." Journal of Women's History. Vol. 10 No. 3 p. 181-191.

Trafficking Women

One of the largest problems with modern day prostitution is the trafficking of women. This is when women are promised a better life as a model or dancer in another country for a fee. What really happens is the woman ends up working in either a brothel or a brothel marked as a bar. The women are forced to sell themselves for sex until they can pay off their fee for reaching the new country. If by chance she should become pregnant, she would be forced to have an abortion, with the cost of the abortion tacked onto her arrival fee. Another bad aspect of the trafficking of women, is that some of these women end up working for the people who enslaved them in the sex trade by recruiting more women to join them. They do this by telling the same lies that convinced them in the first place.

To bring an end to this trafficking problem, women's groups worldwide have been lobbying their own governments and the United Nations. Governments are starting to crackdown on the sex trade, but one of the biggest obstacles they continue to face is trying to figure out who are the ringleaders. This is hard to due because of the majority of rings being operated by members of organized crime.

Picture courtesy of Piet den Blanken. Web site: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ae4811/bordello/bordello.html

Block, Jennifer. 1999. "Madrid's Back Alleys." Ms. Feb./Mar. p. 24.

Chew, Lin. 1999. "Global Trafficking in Women: Some Issues and Strategies." Women's Studies Quarterly. 1&2: 11-18.

Reanda, Laura. 1999. "Endangering the United Nations. The Changing International Agenda." The European Journal of Women's Studies. 6: 49-68.

Taylor, Carole Anne. 1999. "Commodity Future." The Women's Review of Books. Vol. XVI., No. 4: 20-21.

Prostitution and

the Trafficking of Women

The History Of Prostitution

Trafficking Women

Related Links

International Focus